BEST WEEKEND EVER. 

So yup, i'm in cairns right now!!! sadly i have to leave tonight. :( but it has been sooo much fun being here and seeing everyone again! you should have seen their faces.. hahahhaha. On friday night when we got here, they were having a dinner with the relief society, score! so i got to see all of them, it felt like going home! Plus this weather is soo warm. ha! winter.. please, i was still sweating outside one day. haha but we got to have dinner with the Biehlers on saturday which was so fun! we played 'dont eat the prophet' (dont eat pete i think thats what we called it at home), with them and it was so fun! hahhaha, and they were all fighting over who got to sit by me and stuff. :) The the next day, Aunty Dessy, the best and most generous women on the planet, brought me all of that stuff on the 2nd pic to me as a going home and going away present. she is so sweet! i sure have missed her! Then when i went to church and saw everyone, people were like running up to me and even Brother Sr. Luki said i dont care about the rule and just hugged me... hahah and then he apologized to sister sweet. hahahah Then everyone kept telling me i need to move back here. There really is just nothing like the Cairns family branch. And you will probably never hear the end of it from me. :) haha I also got to see Neals Biehler (the dad) pass the sacrament! and He is now in the young mens presidency!! I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!!!!!! you should just see the Biehler family now! Their countenance is changed and they are soo happy! I am soo grateful for this gospel!!! But i don't have much time today.. sorry bout that. :) but know i love you!!!! and i know kyle will do an awesome job on his farewell talk!!! everyone give him a big hug from me please. :) i know he will love it! ;) hahaha 

love, Sister Alldredge

ps i have temple pday next week!!!!! hallelujah! so that means i wont be emailing until wednesday, so ill talk to you then!!!! 

Cairns for Splits!

Cairns!

Aunty Dessy

Presents from Aunty Dessy!

Dinner at the Biehlers with the girls and Spikey!

Little baby Titus that wasn't born yet when I left Cairns

Love this family!

Me and Larina. Ahh, she makes me soo happy!

The Morrisons. Still the best!!!! hahahaha

Last day together

Wow. let me just tell you about our crazy week. hahaha

Monday: we still had the mini missionaries and we had to go to the doctors to check the results for Sister Sweet's CT scan, but good news! All is well! :) I cant remember if I told you but she had the car accident at the beginning of her mission and so her back has been hurting her but they said she just needs to strengthen up her muscles.

Tuesday: the mini missionaries had to leave :( so sad. It was crazy to think that they are the same age as Amber... I think its going to be a shock coming home and the little girls aren't going to be so little any more.... Then when we were on splits with the minis, sister Sweet and Sister Pearse followed up a potential and set a baptism date with her the first lesson! They said it was an amazing lesson and Kamla (lady from Fiji) was crying and said that she knew it was true. So that's awesome!!

Wednesday: we had to go to the mission office to get something and we got to meet President McSwain!!! Then we went to the mission home and had a STL meeting with Sister McSwain... I LOVE THE MCSWAINS SOOOOO MUCH. I thought it would be so hard to get a new mission president and so different, which it is, but it is a good different! They are seriously soo chill and relaxed and so genuine and you can just feel so much love from them! It is a big change from President and Sister Henderson's super intense, give every little ounce of energy you have. But I do miss them too! Then we picked up the Gladstone sisters from the airport.

Thursday: took Sister Rangthang (sister Grawrock's golden) to the city for their golden orientation and then travelled back to our area to work for the day. Lots and lots of driving this week! but it was fun with sister Grawrock! And we had a miracle street that we went finidng on and found 5 potentials all on the same street in less than an hour! finding by the spirit is key and works miracles!

Friday: me and sister sweet woke up feeling sick with a sore throat and cold. but we had to take Sister Grawrock back to the city so she could be there for the 2nd half of golden orientation. So we weekly planned at the chapel next to the temple and then when we were freezing inside, we came outside to stand by the temple in the sun for a bit and a family, that I knew was American, came up to us and we were talking to them and they were from Arizona. they said they were here because their daughter was on BYU cheer and they were performing in the gold coast. And then one older couple said that they had just finished a stay a home mission in Arizona and apparently they served in the same mission with Jessica Purdy! So they totally knew her! so cool! Then me and Sister Sweet fought through the sickness because we had some appointments at night.

Saturday: we woke up even more sick and had to stay in bed. Then sister Sweet noticed a bite on the back of her leg, so after talking to the mission doctor, we had to go to the emergency room to make sure everything was ok. then we came home and rested some more. hahah

hahah so yup, that was our crazy crazy week! It was a good week, and we were grateful for the things we were able to get done, with Heavenly Father's help. We couldn't do it without him!!

And the best news of all............... WE FOUND OUT THAT WE ARE GOING ON TRADEOFFS TO CAIRNS THIS WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! I CAN'T WAIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! we leave Friday night and stay there until Monday night. So we get to be there for a few work days, including sunday and p-day!!! I can't waittt!! just please pray that we will get better soon so we can go up there and work as hard as we can!!!! :)

Love you sooo much and have a great week!!!!

love, Sister Alldredge

Our cute mini missionaries gave us cute presents! 

STL meeting with Sister McSwain

Sister Grawrock came for tradeoffs

When we got sick and our favorite cute Chilean couple in the ward made us yummy healthy soup and stuff.

Hey fam, so don't have much time today because I tried to send lots of pictures... but let me just give you a quick run down of my week.....

so the beginning of the week was reallllyyy slow. No one was available because of school holiday and Sister Sweet's back has been hurting her because of a car accident she got in at the beginning of her mission and so we had some doctors appointments and stuff and so we would just kind of laugh through our tears type thing because who likes to be sad anyways, and we had gotten up to Thursday and we had 6 contacts for the week, (a contact is just talking to anyone new from door knocking and stuff like that) and we had like 3 member present lessons. But the great moral of this story is to have faith and trust in God! So we kept praying for miracles and on Thursday we had an powerful lesson with Fiona and set her on baptism date again. She seriously is soo ready and prepared! she just needs to go to church!!! and so we were feeling so grateful and then we were able to get about 30 contacts that day, but we were still soo far away from the 'hastening standard' for the week that President Henderson had set for 175 per week for ZL and STLs. But we continued to have faith and push through the pain and we got 55 contacts of Friday because two girls in the ward came out with us. Then Friday night we get a text saying that we would be getting a mini missionary!!! So we were sooo pumped and on Saturday morning, Sister Pearse comes and gets dropped off and then she tells us that we are getting 2 mini missionaries! ANSWER TO PRAYERS! so we got to do lots of finding on Saturday and we were able to talk to 74 people that day and teach quite a few member present lessons so after sunday, we reached the 175 contacts. Wahoooo. Heavenly Father is very aware of us, and with Him, nothing is impossible. I LOVE THIS WORK. and I love being a missionary!

Also, sister cashman got permission to come and see us and have lunch with us one day this week, so that was kind of crazy to see her! in pants too! hahah she also trained sister sweet, so it was a great reunion!

And we got to listen to our new mission President, he sounds soo cute. I cant wait to meet him!!! I mostly likely will be able to this week, but ill let you know how it goes!! LOVE YOU ALL SOOO MUCH!!!!

love, Sister Alldredge

My best 10 year old bud Bepe

Sister Cashman came back to see us!  She trained Sister Sweet!

Breanna & Sister Sweet

Fajitas for dinner

Sunday best with a family friend of Sister Sweet's who is in our ward

P-Day with our two mini missionaries who are both 16 years old.

We wore out the mini missionaries!

Morning. How ya going? :)

This past week was really really crazy. Man, you should just see the bags under my eyes.. hahahha me and sister sweet started using the "anti wrinkle" crème her mom sent her... hahahhahah I wish I could say I was joking but we really did that once! haha I will probably look 20 years older by the time I get home. hahah but anyways, thanks for the package and dear elders and also grandma and grandpa alldredge for your 2 cards that I got and Aubrey's adorable senior announcement! so cute!! man, everyone is growing up too fast. :)

So this week we had a final missionary leadership council with President and Sister Henderson. It lasted from 9-3pm. It was really long and then it was traffic hour when we were driving home but it was soo good! I will miss them so much! So they apparently pick up President and Sister McSwain and they get to spend like an hour together and then he gives him a usb with all the mission info on it and then they leave. Crazy! but I am excited to meet them!!! and Kylee Davis just emailed me and told me that their son married a girl that was in my grade in high school! so that's a cool connection, (already their favourite ;)) haha But sister Henderson did tell us that we will be needing to go on tradeoffs to Gladstone, Townsville, and Cairns this transfer!!!!!!!! AAAAHHHHH! I am so pumped to go to Cairns again!!! and Townsville is in the middle of Gladstone and Cairns and Sister Enero is serving there so that will be fun!!! But we just have to wait until the AP's figure it out and book our flights. :) so I may be going to one of those places later this week, idk we will see.

But I did get to go up to Nambour this week! So last transfer there were elders there but now they just put in sisters, and they are in our region so we went and helped the sister up there on Saturday. One of the sisters is from the Philippines and shes been out about 5 months and the other, Sister Gale from New Mexico is a golden, so she is fresh out of the mtc! So they were needing some major help to know how to get the work going. So when we went up there, me and sister Custan were door knocking, and we came to this door and I saw that they had a book of Mormon on their table by the door, so as we got to talk to this guy, he went back inside to grab the book of Mormon and I told sister custan to invite him to be baptized. So we taught him a bit and invited him and he accepted to be baptized on july 23rd!!!! wahoooo! it was sooo cool! my first baptism date set and the door! :) then after we dropped the other sisters off to see a former investigator who is 85 years old and they set a baptism date with him!! Miracles are happening!! and it only happens when we are exactly exactly obedient! Also we got to go and see the mother in law of sharen.. do you remember me talking about? sharen would talk about this lady all the time and how she has influenced her life and she happened to live in their ward! so that was cool to met her!

But I love you all soo much. And I love sister sweet. and I love being a missionary!!!!! It is such a blessing. I never want to take off my name badge or stop this great work. The mission has and will continue to change me. One thing that I loved from my studies this week in the Book of Mormon in Moroni 9:25. We can choose how we react to things, and as we always focus on the Savior, we will be able to act as the Savior would and that is what brings joy throughout the journey!! I love that. and I love you. But most importantly I LOVE my Savior!!!!!!

love, Sister Alldredge

1 sunday best

2 tradeoffs in nambour

3 splits with Makylah, YSA that moved into Northpine

4 when we saw a cochroach so we cleaned out our whole cupboard and tried not to scream too much and it was gone.........

 

G'day mates. How ya going?

guess what..... I've got an aussie companion again!!!!! and I'm staying in north pine for another 6 weeks (by the end of this transfer i'll be here for 6 and a half months). But seriously, I'm so pumped for this transfer. My companion's name is Sister Sweet, she has been out 9 months and is from Melbourne. (pronounced melbin) and she is seriously the cutest thing ever. She is so fun and I am excited!

But it has been a crazy week...... because Sister Bauman and Sister Snelgrove went home Saturday and so that was pretty tough, my heart was just aching and kind of feeling like a left home but its all good now. :) So transfers were today and I got my new comp and then next week President McSwain will come on like the 29th and President Henderson will leave a day after, so man, that's going to be interesting... I don't even know what to except! But I am excited to meet them! They look so cute!

But this past week we saw many miracles! We were able to meet this guy named Rhett, he is 28 years old and has a pretty rough life but we were able to start teaching him and he told us that he was really interested and wanted to be baptized really bad beaucse he knows the 2nd coming is soon, but he hasn't been baptized yet because he wants to be baptized by something with authority, not just any random joe.... uhhhh golden!!!! It was too good to be true!!.. and apparently it was because he told us he was moving like a day after we taught him for the 2nd time... hahahhaha but he said he will read from the Book of Mormon and he gave us him address so hopefully missionaries live near him. haha just my luck. :)

But another miracle that we saw was with a less active member named Rangi. So Rangi has kind of been struggling lately, and she told us this experience she had last week... so her cousin commited suicide awhile ago and she has really been struggling with that and she said that her and her partner got into a fight and she has 3 kids under 3 years old,; so she had gone to a nearby park one day last week because she was feeling real down and was thinking about committing suicide. But then she said that when she thought she was alone, a random lady came out of no where and started talking to her and told her that she knew what she was going to do and that she knew that she was hurting but she was able to help her to calm down. Then all of a sudden she left and came back with a book of Mormon and a bible and they sat down on a bench and she talked to her for like 40 minutes and told her that she was a member of our church and that she saw her from her balcony when Rangi had came into the park and so she had came and saved Rangi's life. And when she was telling us about her experience, we tried to figure out where by the park and who the lady was but there is no one in the ward that lives near there or fits that description, so we all believe that it must have been an angel. And now Rangi is striving to read the Book of Mormon again and she knows and believes that God was really watching out for her that day.  It just strengthens my testimony to know that our dear Father in Heaven really does know us each individually and knows what we each need! This knowledge truly does change everything!!!!!!!

I really just want to thank you all for always sending me emails each week and for praying for me. I do feel your love and prayers and it helps me more than you know!! But I truly am sooo grateful to be a missionary!!!!!!!! I do love it soo sooo much. but what makes me even more happy is knowing that I can repent. Because I make mistakes every day and I always seem to fall short , but I know that I can do better, but it is only with the Saviors help. I am so blessed to know that! And I can't wait for all of the experiences and chances that I have left on my mission to learn and grow even more so I can become more like my Savior. This truly is the greatest time that I can consecrate all my efforts and thoughts and time on Him and His great work.

But I love you family!!! and I am so grateful for you all!!!!!!! have the best week ever!

Oh and I just realized its fathers day in America!! HAPPY FATEHRS DAY DADDY. love you and im so grateful for you!!!!!!

love, Sister Alldredge

  

                                                    1. home grown bananas, yummmay.

                             2. saying goodbye to sis Campbell, I will miss my mauri friend

                                                           3. farewell dinner at nandos

                                                          4. my great 'merican comps

                                                     5. Sister Sweet from Melbourne

Happy Birthday DADDY!!!!!!!! I love you sooo much!!!!!!! I hope you have a great day!!!!

This week was great! One day me and sister Bauman biked the whole day up and down all of these hills in our area. Oh man, my legs felt like jello and we were getting some of the weirdest looks! haha so funny! I think we calculated it up and it was probably equivalent to at least 10 kms. It was super fun. We were just laughing like the entire time. Like when we went to a part member families house, they came outside as we were leaving and they were totally laughing at us as we put on our helmets and got on our bikes in our skirts. hahahah so funny. Have I told you how much I love sister bauman?... :) hahah

Also we got to have our last zone conference and interviews with President. I love President Henderson. I will miss him sooo much. It breaks my heart to think he is leaving. He has done sooo much for me to help me change and to know what I can do to become like Christ. He has been one of the greatest examples of giving and consecrating everything that he has. But I am excited for President and Sister McSwain! They look so cute. :)

But sorry, I don't have much time today, but know that I love you!! and it is week 6 so I will find out about transfers this Saturday! and transfer pday will be Monday so ill let you know what happens. :) have a great week!

love, Sister Alldredge

ps. I got a letter from grandma and grandpa alldredge!! thanks so much!! so sweet of both of you!!!! love you! but make sure you send letters to the mission office because I don't live in cairns anymore. :)

also... best part of my email today........

forward from Tessa, the mom of the sweet little girl Larina that I taught in Cairns and then got to see her be confirmed when I went up for tradeoffs. But her dad got baptized a few weeks ago!!!!! Ahhhhh I LOVE this family!!!!!! This is why I am here. What a blessing is that I was able to see how much this family has grown!!!! I love this gospel!!!!!

---------- Forwarded message ----------

Hey sis Allredge,

We have just had the best weekend ever..

Neals was baptised on Saturday night, was an awesome night he had some much love and support, the chapel was packed of people.

My dad baptised him, all my brothers and sis came up, even my older brother  came over from America as a surprise for neals.

I wanted to express my love and gratitude for u, I will never be able to thanku enough, I know u didn't teach neals, but ur influence on larina showed, and larina's baptism was a big turning point for neals, 

Thanku

We all love u heaps, take care.

Talk soon 

Xxx 

Tessa biehler

 

Biking Buddies

Michelle from Cairns

Neals & Tessa and their girls

Neals Baptism!

Splits with Member

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMBER!!!!! 16 years old. I can't even believe it. and HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY on sunday! :) love you both sooooooo much!!!! have you got my card yet by chance?... I hope so. :)

So this week was kind of a bit of a rollercoaster. ha. Sister Snelgrove was in Cairns for tradeoffs and me and sister Bauman were with Sister Campbell. It was really fun! and we were able to go finding in the pouring rain for like 5 hours and when it was flooding everywhere. that was my favourite day this week. haha! but sister Campbell has been struggling a bit and it has been pretty tough.. idk what I would do without sister bauman. haha but I am learning soo much this transfer! And I know how much I need to work on patience because that seems to be the overall thing that I have been trying to overcome, hahah. Also since sister bauman is going home she talks about home like all the time. so thats also been kind of tough thinking more about home lately but its all good. :) also not to be trunky but... 6 months from today i come home! i can't even believe it!

So last week we had our last missionary leadership council with president and sister Henderson. I can't even believe that they are leaving so soon. I will miss them sooo much. It is going to be so different! but I am excited to meet the McSwains! Ill send you the pic of what they look like in another email. But this week we have our last zone conference with him and interviews. I am going to cry. I know it. I've already teared up a few times just thinking about it. But I know that God has great plans in store for this great mission!!

Also i went and saw Sharen and she told us that she just has a lot going on right now and that she has some concerns with some anti Mormon stuff her neighbour showed her, and i just started crying right there on her porch. ha. it broke my heart when i have been through soo much with her and then for her to turn away from all of the amazing things that she was able to experience. but i know that she does have her agency and that she will be baptized one day! also Darren has been dodging us with every appointment we set with him, but all is well. We should be seeing him this week. But we just need to go find new people to teach who are ready to change!

love you soo much family!!! and i ll see you soon. :)

love, Sister Alldredge

ps. funny story... so me and my companions have to use ear plugs at night because sister Campbell snores really really loud. hahaha

 

Breanna, Sister Bauman, Sister Campbell

Big rain storm