Ron and Carol Allen Family

March 2010
Dear Family and Friends,
When all is said and done, this alone will matter. All else will be as the chafe before the wind or as a dream that is vanished forever. 2 Nephi 9:51 Wherefore, do not spend money for that which is of no worth, nor your alabor for that which cannot bsatisfy. Hearken diligently unto me, and remember the words which I have spoken; and come unto the Holy One of Israel, and cfeast upon that which perisheth not, neither can be corrupted, and let your soul delight in fatness.

Surely the Lord has blessed us to be connected to Him and to each other forevermore. What we have done for our selves will be of little consequence without someone with whom we can share the miraculous experiences and feelings of existence. What we have done for and with others in unconditional love will be magnified forever through Jesus Christ—of joy, of friendship, of family. D&C 15:6 And now, behold, I say unto you, that the thing which will be of the most worth unto you will be to adeclare brepentance unto this people, that you may bring csouls unto me, that you may drest with them in the ekingdom of my fFather. Amen.
The process of true repentance through Christ our Savior brings joy that never gets old or becomes boring as with the selfish pleasures of this world. These are feelings and understandings that have been distilling upon our souls as we have raised a family and served in the Church over the years. The clarity with which these truths have searched our souls since being on a full time mission is absolutely breathtaking. Alma 26:5 Behold, the afield was ripe, and blessed are ye, for ye did thrust in the bsickle, and did reap with your might, yea, all the day long did ye labor; and behold the number of your csheaves! And they shall be gathered into the garners, that they are not wasted.
6 Yea, they shall not be beaten down by the storm at the last day; yea, neither shall they be harrowed up by the whirlwinds; but when the astorm cometh they shall be gathered together in their place, that the storm cannot penetrate to them; yea, neither shall they be driven with fierce winds whithersoever the enemy listeth to carry them.
7 But behold, they are in the hands of the Lord of the aharvest, and they are his; and he will braise them up at the last day.

Incident to walking the path of repentance with these dear brothers and sisters, members and non-members alike, has come love, understanding, and joy as with members of our own families. When we bear one another’s burdens and together break every yoke, break the bands that bind and help one another come out of bondage then we establish eternal bonds with each other and God, our Father, that cannot be broken. D&C 123:7 It is an imperative duty that we owe to God, to angels, with whom we shall be brought to stand, and also to ourselves, to our wives and achildren, who have been made to bow down with grief, sorrow, and care, under the most damning hand of murder, tyranny, and boppression, supported and urged on and upheld by the influence of that spirit which hath so strongly riveted the ccreeds of the fathers, who have inherited lies, upon the hearts of the children, and filled the world with confusion, and has been growing stronger and stronger, and is now the very mainspring of all corruption, and the whole dearth groans under the weight of its iniquity.
8 It is an iron ayoke, it is a strong band; they are the very handcuffs, and chains, and shackles, and fetters of bhell.
9 Therefore it is an imperative duty that we owe, not only to our own wives and children, but to the awidows and fatherless, whose husbands and fathers have been bmurdered under its iron hand;
10 Which dark and blackening deeds are enough to make hell itself ashudder, and to stand aghast and pale, and the hands of the very devil to tremble and palsy.
11 And also it is an imperative duty that we owe to all the rising generation, and to all the pure in heart—
12 For there are many yet on the earth among all sects, parties, and denominations, who are ablinded by the subtle bcraftiness of men, whereby they lie in wait to cdeceive, and who are only kept from the truth because they dknow not where to find it—
13 Therefore, that we should waste and awear out our lives in bringing to light all the bhidden things of darkness, wherein we know them; and they are truly manifest from heaven—
14 These should then be attended to with great aearnestness.
We can become connected to God and to each other forever. John Hynes, Leslie Cahalin, Pheobe Kenmore, Wilma Muir, Chris Seed, Daryl Cronin, Phil and Christine Taylor, Tegin, Liz Clarke, Ning Sananuah, are a few names of those that are forever friends because we have walked the path of repentance together.
We have been blessed to help them feel God’s love in their lives from which comes a great desire to repent: to forgive one another, to attend church and take the sacrament, to stop using tobacco, to stop using alcohol, to read the scriptures, to pray always, to love each other as Christ loves us, to talk with the Bishop, to live the law of chastity, to get married, to seek to obtain and keep a temple recommend, to seek after their ancestors and love them all the way to the temple, to pay a full and honest tithing, and in short to follow our Savior’s perfect example and keep His commandments. The invitation to repent is administered with unconditional love, fervent specific prayer and fasting, and the very real bearing of one another’s burdens. James 1:27 Pure areligion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To bvisit the cfatherless and dwidows in their eaffliction, and to keep himself funspotted from gthe hworld. When we help each other to become disconnected, unspotted, from the world, we become connected to each other forever. Is this not what we do when we home and visit teach, when we teach a class, pass and administer the sacrament, administer to the sick, seek out our ancestors and attend the temple on their behalf, speak kind words, make and keep sacred covenants, and love one another?
The Restored Gospel was first taught on the Isle of Man by John Taylor. After much success in Liverpool, he decided the time had come to take the Gospel to the Isle of Man, to the people called Manx. He therefore left for Douglas on 16 September 1840, accompanied by Elder Hiram Clark and Brother William Mitchell. In summarizing his mission to the Isle of Man, Elder Taylor wrote: I would just remark that the truth came off victorious in the Isle of Man, and although I may say with Paul that ‘I have fought with beasts at Ephesus’, yet I feel thankful to my Heavenly Father that I have escaped unhurt. The standard of eternal truth is planted there, many are rejoicing in the liberty of the gospel of Jesus Christ….and many more are believing and on the eve of coming forth…..There have been seventy baptized in all; thus in spite of all the combined powers of earth and hell, the ‘Truth will prevail’.
We rejoice in your blessings, your friendship and love. Thank you for your support and love. The smile in your hearts warms and blesses us. Love always, Mom and Dad, Grandpa and Grandma, Carol and Ron, Elder and Sister Allen.

Dear Family and Friends, 29 Jan 2010



Being a child of the Living God is absolutely amazing! We are miracles everyone! In all of God’s creations, more numerous than the particles of the earth, we, His children are the best, we are awesome. We ......Chris is ready to baptize his brother Luke 20 Jan 2010. Chris was baptized 2 months ago in Scotland.....
are at once, fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, sons, and daughters. We are family and God is our loving Heavenly Father.


We continue to be overjoyed for the sacred experiences we are having here on the Isle of Man and with the precious territory of loving people to the core through the power and blessing of our Savior. There comes in the Bargain (God’s Promise), the shared burden of heartache and pain of those we are privileged to know and love. As we know, the physical afflictions are much easier to share and bear than the spiritual wounds of the soul of which the Savior personally experienced “the pains of all men”.


Recently a sister who had embraced the Gospel with all her heart, someone with whom we had shared some very tender and sacred moments, at a time of despair and discouragement over failed cancer therapy, turned completely away from the Church requesting no contact with anyone in the Church. We and all who have come to love her are heartbroken—we can learn much about .....After baptism of Luke .......
the Savior’s love for us from such experiences. This is part of what we covenant with the Lord—that we bear one another’s burdens and mourn with those that mourn.



Last Wednesday was a fantastic day not unlike most days. In the morning, Elder Allen passed his Isle of Man driver’s practical test and so qualifies for a UK driver’s license which is required after one year in the UK. Sister Allen will take her test the 3rd of March. The reason for the separation is: If we both failed the test, neither one of us would be able to drive for a month.
On the north end of the island we met with a dear young man in the Jurby prison. He is a member and we love sharing scriptures and Gospel truths with him. He will be in prison 4 or 5 years on drug charges—he is a bright, tender hearted lad who loves the Gospel. His story is tragic like many. His father is awash in alcohol almost .....Christmas morning on the Douglas water front.....constantly and his mother rejected him when he was a young boy. His desperate quest to be loved and accepted has brought to him at the age of 21 much pain and suffering from repeatedly broken promises.



From Jurby we traveled south to Onchan for a meeting with a couple baptized in August. He recently was ordained an elder. They are preparing for the Temple endowment. We share with them about the temple and family history. Reading and pondering the scriptures together truly nourishes our souls and prepares us to make sacred covenants in the Holy Temples.



From Onchan, in the middle of the island, we traveled to the south end of the Island to meet with a young mother, her 14 year old daughter, and her non-member partner whose father is Muslim. The mother has not come to Church since a very bitter divorce

.....Andrew Clague and son Matthew, a child of record.....

because someone in the ward sided with her former husband in the custody battle-- And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the arock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty cstorm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall (Helaman 5:12).

We are teaching them the Gospel with the hope and prayer that she and her daughter will return to Church and that her partner will come to know the Church is true and be baptized, that they will get married—that repentance and forgiveness will win the day. After sharing with them the plan of salvation, he said “it seems almost too good to be true” and, after a pause, that he would read the Book of Mormon and pray about it.

Such miracles have happened many times before over the world and can happen here. This is every missionary’s bright hope. In Ether 12:3-4 we read: “Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the

.....looking east toward the Irish sea from our apartment .....

souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being lead to glorify God.”

Again we traveled to the extreme north end of the island for a meeting with a dear lady, whose friend we met on the ferry. We have met with them four times before, they have come to church. We have enjoyed meals together, shared the Gospel and have shed tears together. She wants to get married, he will commit and then gets scared and runs. She knows the Church is true and wants to get baptized and has agreed to do so in

five weeks. Karen first became acquainted with the Church through a friend in England. Our meeting with Jonathan, her friend, on the ferry was not by chance. Our meeting with Karen was tender as we shared some Book of Mormon scriptures and testimony of the Restored Gospel with her. We returned to our apartment by 11:00 PM tired but fulfilled for the wonderful day we had had on the Isle of Man.

Our hearts are tender for the families of those dear friends at home who have recently suffered the loss of a close family member. We remember with much love and fondness our associations over the years and rejoice in the Promise given each of us that the feelings and sharing will continue in the not too distant future and in a far, far better place.


Thanks again for your love, prayers, and friendship. We love all things beautiful and you are all at the top of the list. Wherever we are and no matter our circumstance or our present endeavor, this

.....This scene is constantly changing.....

is our joy and blessing: “Therefore, hold up your alight that it may shine unto the world. Behold I am the blight which ye shall hold up—that which ye have seen me do. Behold ye see that I have prayed unto the Father, and ye all have witnessed. And ye see that I have commanded that anone of you should go away, but rather have commanded that ye should come unto me, that ye might bfeel and see; even so shall ye do unto the world; and whosoever breaketh this commandment suffereth himself to be led into temptation.” 3 Nephi 18:24-25.

Love always, Dad, Mom, Grandpa, Grandma, Sister Allen, Elder Allen.