Well, the problem is....the days and weeks go by soooo quickly that I just can't seem to get to the computer before the week is over. So what you see is what you get...So much for a successful blog committment!
I want to tell you a bit about a young man we met on our mission, Elder Allred, from Sugar City, Idaho (pictured above). Elder Allred was born in Haiti. His father was murdered and his mother died of an infection of some kind. He had at least one sibling that died in his arms....I'm not sure why or when; before or after his mother died. He was living in poverty and nobody wanted him. He had been baptised into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (aka Mormons) when he was about 8 years old but we don't know the details of that event.
When Elder Allred was about 10 years old a member of our church who worked for the US government was in Haiti working on a project of some kind. He talked to some of the people who worked in the area where the project was taking place and asked them if there was anything else that they could do to help. The people of the neighborhood directed him to Max...a boy that no one seemed to want. The man called some people he knew in the United States, the Allreds, to see if they would want to adopt a boy from Haiti. The Allreds said they would and Max was sent to live with them in Idaho.
Young Max went to school in Sugar City, Idaho and graduated from high school there. One of his great desires was to serve a mission for our church when he turned 19 as most active young men in our church do. He got a job at a local grocery store, Broulim's, and began to save his money. His father told me that one day a fellow employee noticed that Max had forgotten to bring his lunch to work with him. The friend told Max that he could just get something there at the store and they would deduct the cost of the food from his paycheck. But, Max wouldn't do that: the money he was making was sacred money meant for his mission!
Sometime after Max turned 19 he filled out the necessary papers and submitted them, and then waited anxiously for "the letter" to arrive. Unfortunately, because Max had some learning disabilities and had graduated from high school without learning to READ, he did not qualify to serve a normal mission. Those who processed his application suggested he serve a mission from home as a Church Service Missionary at the Deseret Industries or the Cannery or something easier for him to do.
Max was devastated. He so wanted to serve the Lord in a mission away from home. His father said not long after that they learned about the Church and Family History Mission in Salt Lake City and that many young men were serving missions there even though they had some kind of disability that kept them from serving "normal" missions. So they helped Max to fill out his application papers again and they requested that he be able to serve in SLC. When his mission papers arrived in the mail and were opened, young Maxamillion found that not only could he serve in the C&FHMission, they WANTED him there.
One of the many miracles in Max's life happened while he was on his mission: a woman who specialized in teaching reading was serving in the same mission and she began to meet with Elder Allred daily to begin to teach him how to read. After she left, our zone leader's wife, a teacher by profession, also, continued his reading lessons. It is no wonder that there wasn't a dry eye in the room on the last day of Elder Allred's 2 year mission as he took his last turn reading the scripture reference for the day in our zone prayer meeting.
In my short visit with Brother Allred (Elder Allred's father) he told me that he had returned to Haiti to make arrangements for the adoption of other children there and had run into Elder Allred's uncle. The Uncle's first question was, "You aren't bringing him back are you?" I'm sure that the poverty in the country makes it difficult to feed yet another mouth and with Elder Allred's learning disabilities he would not be seen as one who could help them support the family. They didn't want him. Brother Allred assured them that he wasn't bringing him back....because they WANTED him. We all echoed that....we'd keep him with us in our mission forever, if we could. What a fun young man. He was usually very positive and helpful and worked hard... with a smile.
Elder Allred planned to return to Idaho (his family recently moved to Idaho Falls) and get a job...one that would pay more than the grocery store. We pray that the Lord's choicest blessings will be poured down upon this young man and his parents and their other adopted children. :) He has surely enriched our lives in the short time that we got to be around him.
He is one of our heroes.
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