Service

Thank goodness for one 13 year old boy! I tried to help fix a broken microfilm reader, got it all torn apart then was in a real pickle! My sweet companion was in a priesthood training so I wanted to feel useful. Just about that time a little boy walked by the family history center and asked if I needed help. Of course I said yes! One hour later and he had rescued me totally. He was so smart that he figured out how it fit back together and how it worked. I was AMAZED and very grateful. Then we checked the other reader and it did not work either so we hit knuckles together determined to fix it too. We were an expert team by then and fixed it in record time - 30 minutes. We were great friends after that. He was so cute and I was so grateful to him. Here is a picture of me and another occasion looking at the broken microfilm readers. You can appreciate that these machines are no small task to tear all apart, let alone put back together and have them work properly again.

Saturday we had a wonderful day working in the family history center. One of our consultants was assigned for the day, but asked to be excused because he was going back to the temple after several years of repentance and was going to do family names all day too. We were in town so we told him we would cover for him. We were happy to help him. We had a great day serving others. We call our work in the family history center the first session of the temple because the names have to be prepared before we can take them to the temple. There is always a spirit of gratitude in the family history center. We love it there. We got our regular hugs and kisses of thanks and even a few tears of joy. To top our wonderful day off we saw our consultant friend after he came out of the temple and he was floating! He said he had been grinning from ear to ear all day and had a wonderful experience for himself and for his loved ones gone before him. We have watched him work on the names and dates of his ancestors for some time and now he was bearing the fruits of his labor. What a wonderful experience we are privileged to share with others. Another day in the mission field on this beautiful island with these beautiful saints.

Freedom

This is for the grand kids! If you lived here close to us you could be free to run around with bare buns. But that only includes the boys. We always wondered why we seldom see the kids playing in the ocean here. We found out that they are afraid of the water because they do not know how to swim. They cannot afford a swimming pool to take swimming lessons in and the ocean waves are so strong it knocks them down. Even many of the adults never learned to swim so they never get to enjoy the cool water. All this beautiful water everywhere and they cannot enjoy it.

We can apply this to the scriptures. We have wonderful stories in the scriptures to teach us but if we do not read them we cannot learn from them and enjoy them. We love reading the scriptures while we are on our mission. So many of the stories are about missionaries long ago and we try to learn what they did so we can be better missionaries. We love these beautiful islands and the beautiful people.

Missionary Pass Time

My poor companion has been falling apart at the seams for the past week. First his hip hurt, then his knee, then his neck, his back and everyday it was a different joint. He had a horrible tooth ache and it may have been the cause of it all. After he received a wonderful blessing from his general authority cousin, then got a root canal, he started to mend.

While my "companion" was sick I spent a lot of my time indexing. The internet site familysearchindexing.org was a great missionary pass time where I could do a 30 minute service project each day. I started indexing death records in Louisiana and came across my own birthday 20 September 1946. As I typed the names of the people that died on my birthday I was sad for their family. While my mother was happy I was born, so many years ago, another mother in the world was sad. I have reflected on that thought as I have typed hundreds of death dates. I note each one of how they died and how old they were. The cause of death has been everything from drowning to tuberculosis and the age from 1 day old to 96 years old. I feel a part of each person and their family as I index their names. It has been an humbling reminder of our short existence on this earth and why we should make the best of living the commandments while we are blessed with life. Now I tease my companion that I have to visit the morgue again because I want to see who died next, why and how old. It has truly turned my heart to those who have gone before me.

Haiti

Clyde could not go to Haiti to do training because it is too dangerous again. They have had several kidnappings and killings. It is really sad to see so many suffer at the hand of a few. So we invited our Priesthood leader from Haiti to come to us for the weekend and we taught him and his wife in family history. They were shocked at how much more we have here as far as comforts and peace than Haiti. The sister told me that she fears for her children everyday and everyone is under so much stress. They went to the temple while they were here and said it was wonderful to feel the peace and the Spirit. We are so blessed to have a stable government. This is the letter they shared with us. Such a sweet thanks makes our work here worthwhile.


Dear Elder and Sister Allred,

I want to let you know that I really appreciate your dedication, your kindness, your help, and everything you have done so far to help me with this calling. At least, the Lord knows that you are not responsible if I don't give good results and I will do my best. I know I must succeed because the Lord, who has chosen me for this calling, is waiting for concrete results and you have done your best to help me, to train me. I hope you will continue to help me and that the Lord will help me reach the goals he has set for me in this calling.

This is a small creature interested in what we are up to.

Jamaica Tour

We could not fly direct to Jamaica, Bahamas and Caymans so after nine stop overs to Miami, Florida we were some tired old missionaries. One good thing is because of a cancelled flight we had time to buy a new camera to replace our stolen one. We were excited to go shopping. Another advantage of all this flying over the islands is the beautiful blue ocean below. We just cannot believe that we get the great blessing of visiting all of these gorgeous islands. But even better than the places we visit is the people we meet. These island saints are so excited about family history that they crowded into the tiny little center to get a peak at how they can research their ancestors. At every place we visited at least one member told me personally that they had a dream about an ancestor that wanted their work done for them so they came to us to learn what they needed to do. What humble faith! Each island is unique and what a blessing to meet so many different people. All of the Jamaica tour is English speaking with a British accent so that was fun talking to them.

Jamaica here we come!  This trip was a bit different from all the rest.  We had other senior missionaries to take care of our every need.  The mission president said he did not want us to drive because all the driving is on the other side of the road and the roads are terrible.  They have over 400 deaths a year in car accidents and he was just worried about getting us back home alive.  Now, I was REALLY excited about going after that good news!  But we have been asked to visit all of the islands so we go with a smile.  To our great surprise we had a wonderful time and were cared for by some great couples.  They drove us to our meetings, fed us and we stayed at their apartment for the night.  We started our trip out with our camera being stolen out of our suitcase so all of our pictures the other couples took for us.  One of the couples we stayed with lived up in the mountains in a beautiful place that looks like the Garden of Eden.  The sister had the use of only one arm because as a young girl she and her whole family were hit by a drunk driver.  Her mother, grandmother and sister were all killed.  She, her father and other sister were in the hospital and were not even aware of the funerals.  We shared the pain of learning to pick up the pieces of life and forgive those that trespass against us.  She is a beautiful kindred spirit.

Strange things happened at the temple.  We woke one morning to a parking lot full of chairs and a shaded cover. We had a visit from the president of this island.  He wanted to visit the temple and asked if he could take a private tour.  Instead the area president invited him to the temple grounds.  We had a huge turn out of members and missionaries that were called to lend their support.  It was quite an exciting day with all the security, ambulances and motorcade.  It turned out to be a spiritual feast as the area seventy testified of the importance of the family and presented Leonel Fernandez with a framed copy of The Family Proclamation.  There was a special peace with the music of the tabernacle choir as we gathered and dismissed.  His personnel told the area presidency that they felt the peace and spirit and were grateful to us.  Our contribution to all of this was that we burned some midnight oil to find his first four generations to present to him.  Several of our genealogist helped us and we tried to find as much information as possible with such a short notice.  Then we printed him a nice copy in fancy font and he was so pleased he wants us to search for more generations.  It was an interesting process of events.