"What up dawg?" - Stake President

Hey all!! I hope you all had a great week! This week was a good one, and we are back to our regularly scheduled programming of laughs and milagritos. Things are going AWESOME with our new comp, Sister Winder. She is seriously unreal. She has a knack for talking to people so easily and making them comfortable around her. It's seriously so cool to watch. Also, last week I said we had Stake Conference and our ward merged together with another Young Single Adult ward, and so things were going to switch around a bit and I could get transferred. Now I didn't lie, but it didn't happen this week I guess. We had interviews with our mission president and he said that he didnt know our wards were merging until they announced it in Stake Conference, so he has yet to figure out what to do with us I guess. Haha, so we were waiting all week to get a call and it never happened. Next week I guess. Fun lil guessing game we're playing over here. Welp, on to funny things and milagritos!!

THINGS THAT MADE ME LAUGH:

• Sister Winder knows how to make those origami swan/crane/bird lookin things, and she has become addicted to them, and has a whole swan army (swarmy) of them on her desk. Her new tag line she says like 20 times a day is "I can make a swan outta that!" It has been said about gum wrappers, passalong cards, paper towels, literal garbage on the side of the road, one of those caution! wet floor cone things, and a dead rat. She has not in fact made a swan out of all of those things but she has tried most of them. 

• One night we discovered that VeggieTales has done covers of popular songs, my favorite being Jesus take the wheel. Honestly that moment was the hardest I've laughed on the mission so far. I was genuinely crying at it. Highly recommend Jesus Take the Wheel by VeggieTales. Bob the tomato really poppin off with that one. 

• We had exchanges, with the one and only, Hermana Valenzuela. Honestly obsessed with her. She is SO funny, and lets me play Spanish music in the car however loud I want. And she's going home this transfer. Depressing honestly. 

• Okay so this is neither funny nor a milagrito however I'm putting it here cause I had to make a decision. So we had this onion we bought from the store, and it was just sitting on our fruit bowl thing on the counter for a while (here's a question, how long does it take for an onion to go bad?) And I picked it up to use it for a soup one day, and it was GROWING! it had little tiny sprouts growing out the top and so we got a jar and put in water and to be honest I didn't have high hopes for it, but the sprouts are now like a foot high and it's got a whole root system going on, so essentially go me for growing an onion even though I don't actually know what's growing out the top. If anyone with Google would like to inform me on what to do next (do I put it in dirt? Do I give it a lil tiny one of those tomato cage things? It's having a little bit of a hard time standing up cause its so tall now) I would love step by step instructions on what to do with my onion. His name is Frank by the way. 

• The Stake president saying "what up dawg?" over the pulpit during sacrament. 

MILAGRITOS!!

•  Ahhh this week was full of miracles!! We tried in person contacting, which was SO fun, and only 2% terrifying. We attempted door knocking, which was comedic cause we had to park way far away and walk to the houses we wanted to go and then we ran out of time and just had to turn around without knocking on a single door. Lol but I'm sure it's a good time. 

• We did street contacting! We talked to one person! Woo woo! Haha, apparently if you go to the community college on a Wednesday afternoon there's like four million cars but literally no one outside, even during times where classes should be getting out. So that's odd. But we talked to one girl and she was so sweet! 

• Then, by far my favorite, we went metro contacting! The metro is Marylands best kept secret. Actually I don't think it's it's secret. But I didn't know we could use it as missionaries. So therefore, a secret. Anyway, apparently we're allowed to simply get on the metro and ride it back and forth and back and forth and just talk to people. Literally brilliant. The greatest part is new people show up at the station like every four seconds and then they leave so you have new targets so often, but if you want to keep talking to someone, you can just get on the train with them. Honestly unreal it's so fun. AND we found TWO PEOPLE!! They were both so sweet and my new favorite friend is this girl we talked to named Moudatou. She is so cool, and has been texting us back and forth, and is going to meet with us soon. (Crossing our fingers she can come to our Thanksgiving dinner tonight) As a missionary, your prayers often consist of "please help that this person will trust us enough to come to this activity. Even though they probably shouldn't. Cause we just barely met them. On a train. And I wouldn't trust me if I were them. But PLEASE help them to trust us. Even if it sounds sketchy."Anyway so pray that our friends we met for two seconds will trust us enough to have Thanksgiving dinner with us. 

SPIRITUAL THOUGHT 

•  Okay this one is intense because we watched a devotional and someone was explaining this, but I thought it was so good that it's now my spiritual thought for the week. So it's kinda complicated so just ignore this if it makes no sense. BUT this week's Spiritual thought is about faith. In D&C 46:13-14 "To some it is given by the Holy Ghost to know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and that he was crucified for the sins of the world. To others it is given to believe on their words, that they also might have eternal life if they continue faithful." This means that some people have witnesses and experiences and KNOW that God is real. Other people have not had those experiences (yet), but they really truly believe those people who have had those witnesses. And THAT right there is faith! Because faith is believing! In 2 Nephi 11:2-3, it tells us of a direct eyewitness testimony that Isaiah, Jacob, and Nephi have all SEEN Christ and know for sure that He is real. It then goes on to say that "by the words of three, God hath said, I will establish my word. Nevertheless, God sendeth more witnesses, and he proveth all his words." Those are three eyewitnesses right there. But wait. There's more. In Mormon 1:15, Mormon witnesses the Lord. In Ether 12:39, Ether gives us a witness of Christ. Then, in 3 Nephi 17:25, it says "And the multitude did see and hear and bear record; and they know that their record is true for they all of them did see and hear, every man for himself; and they were in number about two thousand and five hundred souls; and they did consist of men, women, and children." Two thousand five hundred witnesses. In total, that 2,505 witnesses. That's a lot of eye witnesses that Jesus is the Christ. That He loves us and that He is real, and that the Book of Mormon is true. So, if you have not yet received a firm experience where you know that you know that you know that this gospel is true, THAT IS OKAY! Do not beat yourself up. Keep believing in those 2,505. (In the Book of Mormon alone) And all those around you who witness of it too. Keep seeking for those spiritual experiences, and don't let yourself quit there, but do not get down on yourself for not having that in your life. "Experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words." Just know that you are DOING ENOUGH! You are doing great! And the Lord sees that. And He loves you and is cheering you on. 

And I'm cheering you on too! Please reach out if you ever want to chat or need someone to talk to! I love every one of you and have such a happy thanksgiving!! Eat all the food and don't run any 5Ks. 

 

LOVE YALL!!

Love, Hermana Allen