Week 4

Week four was pretty fast! There were some pretty good highlights, being able to trade ties with Matt was awesome.  It's one of my favorite ties now. The posters that Grace and Dad put up were so awesome.  We all had a really fun time taking pictures. Sunday temple walk was really fun. I survived another week without having to give a talk in Korean for sacrament meetings so I am grateful for that. On monday we had TRC which is where you teach two lessons to like members normally and you just try to teach them something that they will need. The second guy we taught was a Brother who went to the Seoul mission. He said that Jeff was his AP for a little while he was there. I think his last name was Brother Vansimul or like Brother Vancul. I'm not too sure but we taught him about obedience and following the will of the father and at the end we asked him to bear his testimony after we had all said our own little testimonies. It was really awesome and the spirit was really strong. It's awesome the ability we have to speak and understand what they are saying in korean. It's so crazy. Yesterday in class we learned how to testify using testimony form and so each day we have to tell our testimony 3 times a day to 3 different people in korean.   It's crazy! But we just stop people while we wait in the crazy lunch lines. I wish I had an ipad so I could be able to type my testimony down in korean with the korean keyboard. I can talk about the gospel but that's about it I have no real idea how to have just a  normal day to day conversation but it's fun. On Monday we had our first English Fast which is what it sounds like where you don't speak any english. We did for like 2 or 3 hours.  It was so hard and crazy! It's fun though and kind of solidified that we are actually learning something here. I love being able to write stuff in korean.  It looks so cool and its awesome being able to read all of it. I also like learning all the fun korean slang because that's just fun too say! We also learn words that we use In volleyball like gongjoo which means princess in korean so when ever you hit the ball into the net you have to say "jonen gonjoo Imneeda" or I'm a princess and  then have to re-serve it haha. It's pretty fun all the things we can say. I miss you all a ton! This week was pretty good. I miss you all a ton! I love you guys! 

Love Elder Allen

Week 3

This week went by fast and was pretty good. The language seems to be slowing down a lot now. I feel like we learned a ton the first two weeks and then after that it has slowed down a bit. But I'm sure I am probably still making progress even though I don't think I am. We just got 50+ Korean Missionaries today so we are now the biggest branch in the MTC. That's pretty crazy. I've grown really close to all the Elders in my district they are all such fun and Intelligent Elders.

It's crazy to think that everyone starts school in the next couple days or has(grace). So that's wild I can't believe that it's already that time again.

I have some of the best teachers here Brother Watts, he served in Seoul Nam(Seoul south, my mission) and is such an awesome fun guy he is also super good at keeping us interested in what he is teaching and love when he is our teacher for class. Sister Zundell is our other teacher and she is from provo and served her mission in Seoul and she knows Lexis and Jeff. So its a pretty small world I guess. 

I miss everyone a lot at home and hope everyone is doing good. I love you all Elder Allen!

Love Elder Allen

Second Week

This week was pretty good. We had the chance to hear from the apostle Neil L. Anderson and he gave a really awesome talk 

 The food here really sucks so I have a hard time eating. It makes my stomach upset all the time. I try best to eat something at least. 

Niel L. Anderson gave a talk on keeping your fire burning and it was really good. I do Choir every time so we were able to be in the room with him and not have to watch it over the TV. I also was on the tv a lot because I was sitting right where they always put the camera when the choir sings and it was broadcasted to the all the MTCs. The Choir is so fun! 

The Korean Branch is so awesome, everyone in our branch are allstars! We all play volleyball together and we always just take over 1 side of a court and kill everyone we play against. The korean has been coming slowly and my vocabulary really sucks but I'm one of the faster ones at reading Korean in my district so that's pretty cool. I like how the korean symbols look and my hand writing is a lot nicer in korean than it is in english so that's a good thing. The korean language looks a lot easier then all the asian languages because we actually have an alphabet and only have one writing style instead of 4 like japanese. haha It's fun to read things in korean I mean I don't understand what any of the words mean but I know how to read the characters. We have a lesson pretty much everyday now and they have to be in Korean so its pretty crazy. We have to try and teach people by the spirit while trying to understand what they are saying and then figure out how to respond. So lessons can be rough but are last lesson with our first investigator we invited her to be baptized once she knew the things were true and she said yes. We had planned for that to be the last thing we were going to say but then all the sudden we all fealt the spirit and started testifying and bring up scriptures for her to read in korean and brought up a bunch of other things from our little korean book of things to say it was a pretty cool lesson. 

I miss everyone back at home and hope everyone is doing good. I love you all 

Love Elder Allen

Made it to my first P Day!

The MTC has been very stressful but when you get her everyone just tells you to make it to sunday! It also has been tons of fun I have the coolest district here! All the guys are so much fun to be around and are so crazy. 

I've seen a lot of my friends back from home Elder Garry, Elder Choi, Elder Hanks, Elder Miller, Elder Lilywhite, Elder Peterson. These are just a few I can think of off the top of my head but its exciting to seee all my friends while I'm here. 

The korean Language is incredibly hard and challenging but ill figure it out somehow. I've learned a lot since I've been here like how Open and close a Prayer and how to write and read in Korean. The language will come just slowly...

I'm in a trio it's pretty fun but can also be challenging because you have to drag along the two others sometimes. My companions are both very cool. Elder Dygert is from South Weber as he calls it haha. And Elder Burdett is from Boneville. They are both really awesome and spirtitual guys. 

I hope everyone at home is doing good I miss you all a tons! 

I love you all Elder Allen

Tender mercy and a small miracle.

Today Noah's little sister, Grace, experienced the most wonderful tender mercy and a miracle from our Heavenly Father.

First let me remind you that Grace and Noah have been quite inseparable since birth.  I call them my twins, they're two peas in a pod, partners in crime, truly best friends.  Grace has been having an especially hard time since Noah left for the MTC.  She has been sad, even lost.  She loves her brother and this two years of separation is going to be especially hard on her.

I am going to paraphrase Grace's story from today, with her permission.


After church today Grace felt a prompting to take a drive around the Provo temple.  She said that at first she shook it off, saying, 'she didn't want to be that crazy person who stalks the MTC...' The prompting came again and this time she agreed to go but with a condition, "I will drive around the temple one time.  If I don't see him, I'm going home."  

Grace got in her car and drove the two blocks to the temple that is just across the street from the MTC. She circled round that one time, put her blinker on to head home and a red light stopped her from turning immediately.  As she was waiting at the light a small group of missionaries came up to the intersection beside her.  She noticed a tall blond.  She said she thought the hair cut looked familiar, then she noticed sunglasses that reminded her of her brother's.  All of this was rushing through her mind, her heart racing, she could hardly comprehend the idea that it could be Noah. Then something clicked, her heart sang and she yelled out her window, "ELDER ALLEN!"  

Noah turned around.

Grace quickly pulled the car off the road.
And the two ran to each other, Noah saying, "Gracie!"
The two hugged and they cried. 
Grace said that his companion came up behind them and said, "Elder, that's a girl!"  
Noah's reply... "This is my sister, I can do whatever I want!"
They laughed and they cried and they told each other I love you.
And then the traffic light turned again and Elder Allen had to walk across the street with the five other missionaries into the MTC.

When Grace called me immediately afterwords to tell me what just happened she recognized that had she not been there at that moment, at that time that she would not have seen her brother.

Now there are about 4000 missionaries in the MTC at one time.  Elder Allen is 1 of those 4000. There are seven days in a week, 24 hours in a day and 60 minutes in each hour.  We are not given any idea of Noah's schedule, nor is there a regular time that he would be walking down that street.  This was not a large group of all the missionaries walking to a specific event.  This was 6 Elders on a Sunday walk.  The very fact that Grace was able to be at that spot, at that time, on that day where her brother was is a miracle.  It is a beautiful tender mercy.

Our Heavenly Father knew that Grace needed a hug from her brother.  That she needed to see that he was smiling, that he was well, that he was surrounded by other happy missionaries and to hear that he loves her.  I am confidant that that is something Noah also needed.  What a beautiful blessing that was and how fortunate are we to be loved so dearly by Him who knows our hearts.  I am very, very grateful.

Grace snapped this picture as he walked away.

Noah's First Letter Home

Hey family and Friends,

The first 3 days have been good and very busy. Since our P days are on
wednesday's since we came in on wednesday they allowed us to send a 
quick letter home.
It's been good so far ill be able to email more on Pday.
I am thankful for this opportunity to be here. 

I love you all,

Elder Allen