Telofa! i hope your week was as great as my week! :)

I just want you all to know that Heavenly Father is such a merciful and loving Father... We were able to have the greatest miracle this week!... we had a baptism, well actually 2!! remember the first week in marsden when i told you about how a man in our ward called us and told us the family he home taught wanted their kids to be baptized... well we saw them that first week but they are always so busy so we haven't been able to teach them a ton leading up to this week but we texted her on tuesday this past week and she told us she had talked to Bishop on sunday and they planned the baptism for yesterday! so we literally had 4 days to pull together a baptism and finish all of the lessons. So let me tell you, this week was crazy! hahah! but i love these kids sooo much! So Marley (age 10) and TeManawa (age 9) were convert baptisms and then Leilani (8) and Kingston (8) were child of record. But Leading up to their baptism, Satan was working soo hard on them. We watched it, and the mom, Anahera noticed it as well. Everything seemed to be going wrong! Her son who has a lot of health problems started getting sick, her kids, who usually are really well behaved, were missed behaving, their car didn't start when they were coming to church.. But they stayed strong and it was a beautiful baptism with a lot of their nonmember family members there. I am so grateful for being able to witness these miracles, and i know they will continue to happen if we are exactly obedient.

Also another funny story from this week.. we were following up a former investigator, and we go and knock on his door and this old man comes to the door and starts yelling at us and asking if we know how to read english (because he has a "do not knock" and then it says "no salespeople" and everyone and their dog has one, so we aren't sales people so we always knock :)) and tells us that he told us to never come back when we came before. And so we just kept smiling and apologized and asked if we could do anything to help him. And then he said, :do you want me to throw tomato juice at you?" and we tried to respond but he didn't give us a chance, he runs back inside so we start walking away, and i hear sister lilo say, " he is coming back!!" So i turn around right as he opens the front door and throws dirty fish water at us! Good thing we were out of his reach..hhahah

but yeah, that was my week in a quick short summary. But i love you!!

love, Sister Alldredge

The 4 kids being baptized :)

The sweet Wairepo Family!

Baptism table

Finding in the rain!  My absolute favorite!

Door knocking... hahahahaha

This one is for you daddy 

A painting someone in north pine painted of me

YOU WILL NOT BELIEVE WHAT HAPPENED THIS PAST WEEKEND......

sooooo as you know, it was Chris's baptism... So friday afternoon he got his interview and everything was great, he was excited and we were pumped. So saturday morning, we woke up and got ready and went to the chapel to get ready for the day. As we pull up, there was this huge blow up princess bounce house on the chapel grounds and there was music pumping inside. So me and sister Lilo go in there and the cultural hall was all decked out for what looked like a wedding reception but what was actually like a 3 year olds birthday party. Samoans dont mess around. :) But then they turned off their music for their dance practice and they soon after left. So we waited for a bit for the zone leaders to come and they started filling up the font and setting things up. Then the member that was supposed to pick up Chris came, without Chris. So we asked him where he was, and he said that he had gone to his house but Chris's brother told him that Chris had went somewhere the night before and hadn't been home yet. But we weren't too worried because it was only like 9:15.

Then after a while, he went to pick him up again and came back.. without Chris. The problem with Chris is that he doesn't have a phone.. so me and Sister Lilo just said a prayer and tried to stay calm. ha, then we told the member to go back and wait at his house until got Chris. Then it was 9:45... so me and Sister Lilo decide to go for a drive around Marsden looking for him as heaps of members in the ward pass us to come to the baptism. So we were just driving around and so we went to Chris's house and the member was there, and so we talked to him and then he starts saying, "don't worry you wont be held accountable if he doesn't get baptized" and stuff, and so that made me start crying. So we left and were crying and laughing and praying and not really knowing what to do.. so we went back to the chapel at 10 and called the zone leaders to come out to the parking lot, because we didn't want to have to tell everyone to go home. So they came out and we decided to say another prayer.. as soon as it ended, i felt at peace. I had faith that Chris would come but I also knew, and had faith that if he didn't, that it was God's will. And as soon as I thought that, the member pulled up with Chris is the passenger seat. AHAHAHAH you shouldve seen Sister Lilo and I... hahahhaah So we rushed in and he got changed quickly and we only started the baptism about 10 minutes late. :) The baptism was really good and the spirit was soo strong when he was baptized. Then after he got to bear his testimony and he talked about how he really felt how satan was trying to tempt him last night because he knew he was going to be baptized. Then he said that he knew Joseph Smith was a prophet and that Jesus Christ is the son of God. The spirit was so strong. It was such a special experience! Then on sunday he was confirmed, and after he received the gift of the holy ghost, he was walking back to his seat and wiping his eyes form crying. So special. I LOVE those tender mercies that God so mercifully allows us to experience. Those moments make all the heart ache worth it. Even though Chris almost gave us a heart attack. hahahah

Well just know that Heavenly Father is sooo aware of you. He knows what you need, He knows why you are going through the things you are going through, and He also is soo loving that He would not allow you to go through the pain and suffering and hard trials unless it truly did help us to become more like our Savior and to ultimately return to Him someday. Never doubt that. And at times when you may not understand, instead of wondering why we are going through something, ask, "what does Heavenly Father want me to learn? or How can I become more like the Savior because of this?" always rembmer and focus on the Savior and think about Him and the pains that he suffered and went through, and then yours may not seem so bad. :)

Well I LOVE YOU SOO MUCH! But i love my Savior and my Heavenly Father more. I hope you have a great week and that you know and can experience the power of prayer in your life.

Love always, Sister Alldredge

Chris' Baptism!

Baptism day!

Princess bounce house :)  Someone must have got really excited for Chris' baptism !:))

Selfie sisters

A birthday party our zone helped with for a girl in our ward

10 Commandments matching game

MALO! so im so sorry,  this will be a short email.....

So today was temple p-day, ahhh what a blessing. i didn't want to leave. :) We got up nice and early and took the train as a zone to the city and then walked up to the temple. 

This past week was really long, but it was good! We are starting to build up our teaching pool a bit and Heavenly Father is sure blessing us with miracles daily. thanks for all your prayers, they are sure felt! But please pray for Sister Lilo. I am doing my best to really help her to enjoy the work and to focus on it, but its easier said than done. :) And I know that Heavenly Father can help her and bless her much better than I can, so please keep her in your prayers. 

But this past week was great! We had the blessing of speaking in church and afterwards a ysa came up to me and told me that she had been baptized last year and that her sister also wanted to be baptized but that she wanted to be taught by someone like the missionary that taught her, and so when she saw me speak she said that i reminded her a lot of that missionary and so she asked if we would be able to teach her sister! So i am pumped to be able to meet her!! :) 

Also we are having a baptism this week, his name is Chris, he is from africa and he is about 20. Sister Lilo started teaching him and I have been able to teach him a few times and so we are soo excited for saturday! So yesterday we were going over the baptismal interveiw questions with him and Sister Lilo asked him what is meant for him that we have a living prophet on earth today, and he said, "it is just more convicincing evidence that the book of mormon is true and that Joseph Smith is a prophet." When he said that, man, the spirit was so strong, it melted our hearts. haha i love seeing when people understand and apply the gospel. ahhh its the best feeling ever!!!! But i will tell you more about it on monday. :)  

Also, thank you soo much Heather for your sweet gift! She sent me 2 scarves, one of them i am wearing in the picture with us 4 sisters, but that was such a sweet surprise! 

Well i love you! And ill talk to you in a few days. hopefully you can send me some pictures of what you have all been up to... :) thanks OTE ALOFA IA TE OI!

LOVE, Sister Alldredge

Temple trip!

Bike ride on P-Day

District on P-day

Zone lunch

We love our wraps!

Our favorite little Samoan investigators

In the car

Emanuel and Chris

Favorite snack

More Clif bars

Me and my fellow Samoan princesses :)

Car selfie

More car pics

Temple trip

Temple trip

Watch out for swooping birds

Talofa! oa mai oe?

sooo i am learning samoan because i am surrounded by samoans. hahahah its great!

This past week was so long. hahahah It started off really good!! The first day we got a call from a brother in our ward and he said that the family he home teaches needs 4 of their kids to be baptized and 2 are convert baptisms! So we went and met them and they are the sweetest family from New Zealand. She is a single mom and has 7 crazy kids under the age of 10! I cant wait to teach them! I love them already! It is seriously the best feeling when they open And we met a couple part member families that are awesome too! But then on wednesday we had zone meeting and these two big samoans sisters in our zone made a huge feed for lunch..... yeah, i don't know how they have time to cook like that.. hahahah but then Sister Lilo started getting really sick so we had to stay in the flat for half of wednesday, thursday, friday, and most of saturday. I was going crazy. hahah so we didn't get to do too much work this week, but the miracle of the Wairepo family was amazing!

But our area is very small, only 2 suburbs instead of like 9 that we had in north pine! There are heaps of polynesians, and i can't for the life of me pronounce any of their names. I sound soo white. haha. But thats alright, my great companion will help me to learn! church was fun and I love sacrament meeting and just listening to all of them harmonize the hymns. Its my favorite! Sister Lilo is from sydney, she is the oldest of 4 girls and she is so patient and has a great desire to be obedient!

But a funny story from yesterday.. so we have this pretty crazy less active member that we went to see, and she asked if we could do some service for her yard yesterday, and we were so excited! service is the best... so we came and she told us she wanted us to edge her lawn with scissors and to clean up all of her dog poop that was all over her yard and who knows how long some of that has been there for... hahahaha so me and sister Lilo had a great time trimming the grass as she sat up on her porch smoking. hahah

But i am looking forward to these next few weeks and i can't tell you how excited i am that Kyle is loving the MTC! 

Fasafua!

love, Sister Alldredge

Mission Leadership Council

KYLE!!!! i can't believe he is leaving like, tomorrow!!! AAAHHHHH!!!! LOVE YOU SOO MUCH BUD!!!!! Also, HAPPY BIRTHDAY PARKER!!!!!!!!! sorry i forgot last week...but hopefully you got my letter because that will make up for it. :) haha 

Hello family!!! So yup, you guessed it! I got transferred!! I am now in Marsden in the Logan Zone on the southside of Brisbane, and i am follow up training Sister Lilo (who is samoan and she is from sydney). But she is serisously soo cute and so excited to work! I guess she had a tough 1st transfer because of her trainer who is going home but I am so excited to be her companion! Its a dream come true! Just what i wanted! And apparently the ward is all islanders... so me= palangi (white person). anyways, my new address is at a super flash flat... its so nice. the address is 48/29 Juers Street, Kingston, QLD 4114. look it up. :) I have my own super nice bathroom and everything! and we have a nice view from our balcony on the top floor, its great! :)

So this past week was pretty bitter sweet. Sooooo many amazing miracles happened that made me kind of not want to leave north pine but i can't wait to start meeting new people! :) But one miracle we had was when a member called us last week and told us that her wanted to take the lessons with us. She had gone to school with the member and Katie, her friend, is dating a member as well. So the first time we taught her, the lesson went so well! The spirit was so strong and you could see how prepared she was! Then when we went home, she texted us asking if we could teach her the next day as well, so we went back the next day and taught her the next lesson and she, again, was so accepting and excited to learn more!! So i can't wait to hear when she will be baptized, because i know she will!

But i have the coolest story to tell you.... so there is this less active older man named Shaun, and he is a pretty interesting guy...... just to show you a bit what he is like, he wrote me a goodbye not telling me that they will always love me more than Bill Clinton and that he hopes the first female President, Hilary Clinton, will meet me and welcome me at the airport when i get home... hahahhaahahah but anyways, this past week he said that he was going somewhere and saw a purse just laying on the ground. It was a very expensive purse and as he looked through it, it had over a thousand dollars in cash and $2000 worth of gift cards. Someone must have accidentally lost it but he didn't know where to take it so someone could retrieve it. So after looking through the purse, he found a ladies name and address and so he packaged it up and sent it to her without a return address or his name or anything, just a note saying that if he ever lost anything, that he hoped someone would do the same. then he wrote 'LDS' in the middle of the picture of the outline of austrailia on the stamp and sent it to her. Then a couple days after that, he went down to the bus station near his home, and he say 5 or 6 signs hung up everywhere that said "Thank you LDS." HOW COOL IS THAT?! so today as we were driving to kangaroo point to get my companion, we got an impression to call him and ask him for the address so the missionaries can stop by and knock on her door, because she probably has no idea what LDS means! So lets hope and pray that that all works out. :)  

Anyways, I will keep you updated on stories and those we are going to be teaching in Marsden, and i will send you a picture of me and Sister Lilo next week!

LOVE YOU!!!!!!! AND GOOD LUCK KYLE!!!!!!!!!!

love, Sister Alldredge 

                                                        1. whats left of the cairns district

                                              2.  goodbye to the beautiful Pelesasa family

                                                  3. Jr and Brynee, sure love this family!

                                                                    4. Rea family

                                    5. Ortega's and a scrapbook that Sister Ortega made me!

                                                                      6. kolo family

                                                        7. Katie, our miracle for the week

Last week at the Temple

                                            Some left over clothes we found when we were cleaning :)

                                  Kia, the most solid investigator I have ever met!!  She will do amazing things!!