Ahhh... Pope's wife

Hi all!!! Oh my goodness I hope life is good for every one of you. I love and miss you all and hope you are turning to the Lord with all your "heart, might, mind, and strength". It makes life better, whether life is not going great, or if it's going amazing, it could be better with Christ!!

This week was AMAZING!! Wow. So much has happened. We finished up our birthday week on Monday, so that was sad, but it's really only gone up from there. We've had so many good things happen, life is pretty awesome. 

THINGS THAT MADE ME LAUGH:

• Every week, we serve at my favorite place, St. Camillus, where we are the very few people there who aren't Catholic. So us missionaries were talking about the Catholic church, and trying to learn more, because we realized none of us really knew a lot, and we wanted to learn since we loved the people we served with so much. But they were all busy at the moment, so we turned to the member of our church who serves with us, (who is from China, and just learning English, and cracks me up every three seconds) and we said, "hey Shawn, you have Google, help us out" and one of the points of discussion earlier was trying to figure out if the Pope had a wife, and so Shawn goes "ahhhh.... Pope's wife" and honestly you had to be there but it was too funny. Then we ended up asking one of the guys there, he answered our question (the pope does not and cannot have a wife or kids) and Shawn comes back after a minute and we told him what we found out and he was so mad at us cause he was so excited to tell us he found out the answer. Woops. Sorry Shawn. But that one question actually turned into a whole discussion with one of the guys there named Scott and I learned SO much about the Catholic church, it's really amazing! And we got to teach him more about our church, and apparently he's already read the Book of Mormon and studied our church a lot so that's way cool. 

• After, I was telling a story to the sister missionaries and Shawn about how I ate goldfish or something (I don't remember the context) and about two minutes after I mentioned eating goldfish Shawn interrupts the conversation and says "so were the goldfish.... good?" And then we realized that Shawn thought I was eating goldfish from a fish tank and that was another highlight of my week honestly. 

• Our district leader is seriously amazing. Such an awesome guy and a great leader. He also LOVES to talk. Every Thursday and Sunday, he is supposed to call us to ask us about our goals and such for the week. It's supposed to be less than a 5 minute conversation, and they always end up being 15 minutes or more. And when you're very tired and want to go to bed that can really drain you. So instead being annoyed me and Sister Weight made a bet that I couldn't make him talk for half an hour the next time he called. So Sunday night rolls around, and I get prepared, and it's hard work but I'm telling a bunch of good stories, pulling out all the good jokes, which makes him think of stories to tell, and it's going pretty good and 15 minutes goes by, then 20, then 25 and I'm feeling pretty confident in my game. Then, all of a sudden, at 29 minutes and 35 seconds, he says "well I should probably go, I'll see you all tomorrow" and I panicked and didn't know what to say and so I didnt say anything and the call ended up being 29 minutes and 48 seconds. A bitter defeat. I'll keep you updated if I pull through next week.
  
  

MILAGRITOS:

• AHHH WE HAVE EIGHT FRIENDS!!! For return missionaries, a friend is an investigator, and for not return missionaries, a friend is someone who interested in the gospel and who we are teaching. Anyway so I told you all last week about Joey, and how amazing he is, and we didn't get to meet with him this week but we got in contact with his friend (just a normal friend) who's a member of the church and she helped us know how to help him. He seriously has so much potential and loves God so much and I'm praying all the time that we can help him get even closer to God. Second, we have Amanda. Oh my goodness, I love her. She's pretty quiet, so sweet, and honestly just so curious about our church. We taught her a bit of the basics and we are going to meet with her again soon so that will be awesome. Then we have PRYNCESS!! I love this girl. Me and her were best friends in heaven I'm sure of it. We taught her an awesome lesson on Saturday night and got to just hang out and talk and we talked about love and repentance and she got the same kind of Book of Mormon as me (one of the journal ones) So now we're gonna have matching Book of Mormons. (Books of Mormon? Book of Mormons? No idea. It's a source of contention among missionaries) Anyway I love her and she's making some awesome steps toward baptism, and I'm SO excited for her. She's amazing. The we have Pete and Glenmar. I'm sure Pete and Glenmar are absolutely amazing, however I've never met Pete or Glenmar cause Pete and Glenmar are very busy men who never have time for us. But they do want to learn more about the gospel so that is quite the predicament. (Pete and Glenmar don't know each other but they should be friends who are too busy for Jesus together) 

• Liam and Josecarlo deserve a whole bullet to themselves. They are roommates, and we called Liam a few days ago and never heard back. Then, out of the blue we get a call from Liam Sunday afternoon and he was with Josecarlo, and he wants to meet with us and remembers meeting with missionaries before and then asks us kinda the whole "where did we come from? Why are we here? Where are we going?" Kinda question and he has literally no knowledge about anything gospel related, so we taught about God a bit and Adam and Eve and such, and it was crazy he was pretty receptive and was asking questions, and then he asked if he could meet with us and he wanted to meet next Sunday, at 8pm, and bring 8 of his friends. Next Sunday is Halloween. 8pm is pitch black. 10 men meeting me and Sister Weight at a park sounds like a really really terrible idea. So we shot down the 8 friends thing real quick, and are gonna figure out a way to get out of the 8pm one. So far our options are to 1. Bring all the men in the YSA ward or all the Elders in our zone 2. Not show up 3. Make it happen over zoom or 4. Teach them from our car with a megaphone and not unlocking our doors and have them sit on the curb and listen. I'll keep you updated if I get kidnapped (I'm not gonna get kidnapped mom) or if we change these boys eternities. Honestly a fun exciting story either way. 

• Then a real miracle, like 20 minutes after Liam called us, we had a girl we had never ever been able to get in contact with literally ever out of the blue called us and was so interested and wants to meet with us this weekend. Ahh miracles are so real. After that phone call, me and Sister Weight kinda just sat and stared at each other in shock for a solid 3 minutes before we started cheering and having a party. Call the missionaries back folks. You may have a dance party on the other end of the call. You never know. 

• So anyway these 8 friends are seriously a real life miracle. Before this week we had 0 or 1 friend at all times, so honestly miracles really happen. The goal is to get 2 new friends a week, every week, and we got 5 this week. (We have never even reached 2 before) It was insane. I'm crazy excited to see how they all progress. Honestly God is real and He loves us SO much. Not only does he love our friends, and has changed hearts and prepared them to hear the truth, He loves US, and let's us teach them. Wow wow wow. 

• WE KNOCKED ON THREE WHOLE DOORS!! Ahahaha it's my 4th week in the field and NOW I'VE KNOCKED ON THREE DOORS! Man I felt like a real life missionary. Two of the people we went to visit weren't home, and the last guy's mom answered, saw us, and told us he was home and he wasn't interested. My first in person rejection went quite well I'd have to say. I enjoyed it quite a bit. 

• The leaves are changing colors!!! Man I cry every time I go outside (not actually but I think about crying every time) but just you wait for all the pictures yall are gonna get when the leaves to change all the way. Maryland is stunning. From the trees to the leaves to the temple on the freeway to the ivy crawling everywhere to the STUNNING houses, ugh I'm obsessed with it all. 

• Church was amazing. We had a ward conference, and I don't know, but I think Strathmore YSA does ward conference right. We had an hour and a half long sacrament meeting, full of AMAZING talks and some really awesome testimonies, and then everyone went downstairs (the church is an old Baptist church so it's so bougie and has like a million rooms AND three stories) and we had chicken and waffles with everyone. Utah needs to get with the program and supply chicken and waffles at church. Chicken and waffles is what I call a miracle.  

AND LASTLY, I just want to share a spiritual thought. In 2 Nephi 4: 34, Nephi says "O Lord, I have trusted in thee, and I will trust in thee forever". Nephi had some incredible experiences with the Lord's hand in his life. Because he trusted his father and the scriptures that taught about Moses and Abraham and their miracles, he was able to put the Lord to the test and gave the Lord opportunities to bless him. We can put that same trust in the Lord that He has worked miracles in others lives, time after time, and while that is amazing, we need to give the Lord opportunities to bless us, which gives us opportunities to let our trust in Him grow. When we have those experiences and see His hand in all things, we can stand with Nephi and say "I will trust in thee forever". So go out there and give the Lord the opportunity to make miracles happen!! I love you all so much and hope you are doing well, please reach out if you need anything or if you just wanna chat. You are SO loved! 

-Hermana Allen