Don't even TALK to me about bop-it. I'm FED UP WITH BOP-IT 

Hey hey!!! Happy p-day!! This week was another good one. Let's get right into it!!! 

THINGS THAT MADE ME LAUGH: 

• As the subject line says, a quote from hermana hermosilla "don't even TALK to me about bop-it, I'm FED UP WITH BOP-IT" So then we didn't talk to her about bop-it. And I guess we're all left to wonder, why 9 months into her mission, where she probably hasn't seen bop it in those 9 months, she still has such strong feelings toward bop-it. 

• A new sister joined our ward this week, so now we're back up to five! (This poor ward had gone from 2 hermanas, to 3, to 4, to 5, to 4, and back to 5 in six weeks. Wild stuff) anyway so she joined on Tuesday, and on Saturday night we were all talking and she said something about her friend being "named Ashley too" and 3 of the 4 of us at the same time go "WAIT YOUR NAME IS ASHLEY???" ahhh mission life. gotta love it. 

• Another good quote "What's that thing a women gets when she's pregnant?" "....... uhhhh, a baby." (the answer was an ultrasound by the way)

• Okay so lest yall think I'm a horrible missionary, walking up to people saying "Hi we're missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, can we share a scripture with you?" is actually sometimes effective, but 95 times out of 100, people are "in a hurry" or "don't believe in anything" or excuse after excuse. Honestly don't blame them. I would probably say no too, its a lil weird. So I've been trying new tactics and my new fave is "Hi how are you doing? Okay so we're new in the area and we're looking for *insert street name here* street. Do you know where that is?" And 95 times out of 100 they'll point us in the right direction, and then we talk to them a bit and they are more open, OR better yet they say "oh I'm walking that way anyway I can show you where it is" so then you have a whole walk with them to talk about the gospel. It's amazing, highly recommend. Well anyway, the other night there was this guy who I felt like we should talk to, so I asked him where a street was, and I panicked and said the main road in town, which also happens to be the one our church is on. Which I definitely know where it is. So he is all nice and starts leading us to it, we're having a nice gospel discussion, and then all of a sudden he turns and starts going not at all toward the street I asked him about. And it's kinda getting dark outside, but we're still just chilling so we keep talking about the gospel, sharing our beliefs, and we are walking just the most random route in the world. Then we get to the point in the conversation where we're inviting him to church and my comp goes "so it's on the street calagno (the street I asked him about) do you know where...." and trails off cause she realized our mistake and then it was awkward for everybody but then he didn't think too much of it i think and turns out he was just walking home and told us to get to calagno we needed to walk a little bit straight, turn left, and then turn right and we'd be there. He really just left us way more lost than when we started. Anyway so it was great fun and hopefully he's actually interested in hearing more haha he won't respond to us so the odds aren't looking good. Woops. Aaaand my comp probably won't let me ask that one again cause we were 5 minutes away from our house and then a 30 minute conversation and 30 more minutes of walking later, we finally made it home. 

MILAGRITOS:

• Early in the week, we were walking down the road and there was a man on the other side of the road and I had the feeling to go talk to him, and right as I had that feeling, he looks up and sees us and comes right over to talk to us. Thanks to Heavenly Father for making that one way easy. Anyway we talked to him for a bit and his name is Carlito, and it became pretty apparent that he has some sort of special needs. He was so sweet, and asked us if we had a picture of Jesus. What a perfect question to ask the missionaries. So I pulled out a little passalong card with a picture of Jesus Christ on it, and the second he saw it, I've never seen that much love on a person's face. He stared at that little picture like he knew EXACTLY who Christ is and what He did for him. Then with tears in his eyes, he tried to give it back and when we told him he could keep it, I thought Carlito was about to to a back flip right then and there. He was so sweet. It made me really just want to have THAT much love in my heart for my Savior, because He is my Savior, my Redeemer, and my Best Friend. And He has the potential to be every single one of your best friends. After all, I flew across the world to share my Best Friend with the people here, might as well share Him with literally the whole world if I can. 

• This is a really random one but I'm labeling it a miracle nonetheless. This week has been a little bit tricky, we dont have anyone to teach, we have been working hard at finding but have yet to find anyone to listen, and then halfway through the week I got super sick, along with one of the other hermanas in our ward, who also happen to be our STLs. So we did a nice little exchange that day and me and the other sick hermana stayed home and studied Spanish and texted people, while the other hermanas went finding and taught lessons and such. At the end of the day I was just so sick and so tired of life, and I was thinking about how much I wanted some lemonade (if yall don't know this about me, I really really love lemonade) (and if yall don't know this about Uruguay, there's no lemonade in this whole country) so later I was telling Hermana Wilson something about how much I loved lemonade and really was wishing I could have a chick fil a lemonade right then, and she kinda jaw drops at me and runs to the closet and pulls out one of those tiny lemonade packages that you stick in water and says "oh my goodness I didn't know why I had the feeling to keep one of these when I came here but I guess it was for you" and SEVERAL MONTHS AGO this girl had brought a lil lemonade packet just for me this week and she didn't even know it. Ugh I cried I was so happy. God is so good in just the tiniest ways. 

SPIRITUAL THOUGHT:

This week I've really been thinking a lot about just how essential God is in each of our lives. Every morning I pray and ask Him for the gift of tongues, and to be led to the people who need the gospel, and to be able to watch miracles happen, and to bless the members in our ward, and on and on and on, and every night I pray thanking Him for helping me accomplish those things, and then He blesses me for it. I literally barely do anything, I'm praying for help with my Spanish and then God hand delivers that help, and then he blesses me, cause He already blessed me? Does it make sense? Literally not at all. Is it just SO much proof of the kind of God He is? So much yes. I'm so grateful for Him. In Moses, after seeing God face to face, Moses says "Now for this cause I know that man is nothing". Kinda a lame remark two seconds after he literally SAW GOD. But for real. This week I have been reminded over and over of my own nothingness, and how much I need to rely on the Lord. But if yall think I'm gonna leave you on that note, absolutely not. Because two seconds later, Satan tries to tempt Moses, and Moses says "For behold, I am a son of God, un the similitude of his Only Begotten". After meeting God, Moses realizes his own nothingness, because he has to rely on the Lord for EVERYTHING. And yet, God loves us so much that our worth just SKYROCKETS because of how much He knows we are worth. We are sons and daughters of God. HOW INCREDIBLE IS THAT?? We are worth something, solely  because He knows we are. And so we NEED to trust in Him. There's really the only way. Like some very nice dude I've never met said, "Just give it up. Surrender your will to Him. Unconditionally. Withhold nothing. Turn it all over to Him; all of your desires, wishes, dreams and hopes. Be true and faithful in your head and in your heart, not just in your behavior. Trust in Him. Trust Him who knows all things. Trust Him who has all power. Trust Him whose love for you is perfect. Trust Him, who alone suffered, paid and atoned for your sins, and for your weaknesses as well. Trust Him that He will make of you, immeasurably more, than what you will ever, ever, in all eternity, make of yourself. He will create of you a masterpiece. You will create of you only a smudge. You will create an ordinary 

man. He will create a God." Let the Lord write your story. And it will be more incredible than you can imagine. 

Okayyyyy that was a long one. My deepest apologies. BUT I love you all I hope you're having such good lives and watching all the March Madness and living life to its fullest. Go turn to God. He's cool. Peace out!

- Hermana Allen