Please bless that no one will bother us...

Heyyyyy!! Back at it!! This week was crazy busy and crazy fun and so many crazy reminders of the truthfulness of this gospel. 

MILAGRITOS:

• Sarita had her baptism!! She is seriously the cutest ever and the water was almost freezing and she came up giggling so hard. She's adorable. Afterward she gave her testimony and let's keep in mind every time we go over to her house for lessons, I really never know if she's paying attention or not, cause she's got so much energy. But she got up there and said the basic things like I know Jesus loves us and all that, and then said "when my dad put his hands on my head, I felt really warm, right in my heart. Even though I was REALLY cold. And now I understand why it's called baptism by fire, because there was a fire in my heart." It was seriously one of the most powerful things I've ever heard a little kid say. She went right off to playing with her friends after that, but I think it impacted every adult who heard it. Because if a girl I've never seen sit still can bear a witness that clearly and simply and truthfully, then there's not a lot of doubts about this whole thing. The Holy Ghost is real. And whether you've felt a fire in your heart or not, I hope you have felt the peace that the Spirit brings. And whether you have or haven't felt it, go seek it. Seek that peace and that goodness and that truth. Cause its real. Sin duda. 

• We had so many miracles with people coming to church!! We started a sports night this week, and one of the members who hasn't been to church in years and years came to it, and on Sunday came with his mom to church, and they even stayed for Sara's baptism. It did my heart a whole lot of good to see them come to church. We also had one of our friend's that we're teaching show up to church with her whole family, which was pretty amazing. Sunday was the most full I've ever seen our little chapel, and my soul really just loved every second. 

• We had a multi zone conference, and it was POWERFUL!! We learned about the power of prayer (YES there is SO MUCH power in prayer) and about missionary work (no duh). It was really fun to see a whole lot of missionaries who are all just trying to build up God's kingdom all together being spiritually lifted and reading scriptures and laughing and singing and eating pizza and cake together. 

THINGS THAT MADE ME LAUGH:

• We had exchanges, so I went to Florida (there's a "state" here called Florida and no I did not go to the US) for a day, and it was SO fun. Hermana Lopez cracks me up. At one point we were walking and I got on the topic that there were a lot of different languages in my reassignment, and I said something about ASL, and she was all surprised so I was explaining that there is a college for deaf people in DC. And she just goes "... uh... why?" And I was like "well uh idk they don't have a lot of opportunities to go to a regular college and get an education" and she just looked so confused and then I was confused and then it was awkward and then FINALLY turns out that the word for someone who's left handed and the word for someone who's deaf are very similar and so I can't actually pronounce the difference or remember which is which so once that got cleared up all was well. I'm also starting a college for left handed people cause we don't have a lot of opportunities in this world. All yall left handed people are welcome to join. 

• I have a necklace I wear every day that says Be Still (think "be still and know that I am God") (shoutout to Danny and Camie for the necklace) and at one point hermana Lopez says "what does steal mean?" And so I told her the Spanish word and she looks all funny at me and goes "why do you have a necklace that tells you to steal?" And it WRECKED me. Now I want a necklace that just says "steal". Also apparently I need to work on calming myself cause after Hermana Lopez told me that was a weird necklace for me to have cause I was never "still" aka "tranqui" which actually translates to "calm" more or less. Woops. I'm working on it. 

• ALSO on our exchanges, I witnessed more rain than I have ever in my life. What made it better is that my rain boots are currently full of holes since I wear them almost every day so every step I took there was just gushes of water coming out all the holes ahaha. The streets were literally FILLED like past the curbs with water, and then the raised sidewalks had 2 or 3 inches on top of that. I literally got a shower every time I walked outside that day, butttt we didn't take any pictures or videos so thats honestly tragic. When I got back to the apartment every time I walked to the shower and dumped out all the water from my boots (don't ask me how there was still copious amounts of water in my shoes and I have holes everywhere. No idea how that worked) and squeezed out my socks and then since we were on exchanges and I didn't have all my clothes I got to put on and off those absolutely drenched socks and shoes every two seconds. 10/10 don't recommend. 

• I gave 3 haircuts this week. Did I know how to cut hair before my mission? No. Do I know how to cut hair now? Still no. 

• We were in a lesson with our friend, and she had almost finished her prayer when her husband yelled something really loud from the other room, and she fully backed up into her prayer again and said "please bless that no one will bother us during this lesson and we can feel the spirit with peace and quiet" and me and my comp were SHAKING we were trying so hard not to laugh. 

SPIRITUAL THOUGHT:

Okay I have actually been so spiritually filled this week that I don't know what to write about. I've learned an insane amount about hope, about repentance and change, about wisdom and knowledge, about love, and randomly about Captain Moroni. If any of yall wanna have a deep conversation about any of those, hit me up sometime. If not, I think I'll focus on repentance and change today. Guys. Repentance is so cool. It's literally synonymous with the word change. (Change for the better, more specifically) I get to preach repentance every single day. AKA I get to let people know that they CAN change! That there IS hope! That through Christ, we can BECOME BETTER! Literally what would most people in this world give to know that they can be forgiven of things they've done? That they LITERALLY CAN BECOME PERFECT?? Whatttttt how cool is that?? So yeah. When the scriptures say "REPENT YE REPENT YE" it literally is just "YOU CAN CHANGE YOU CAN CHANGE" so anyway everyone go repent. today. AKA go change something about your life for the better, and focus on Jesus while you're at it. 

Love you all!! Have a FANTASTIC week!!

- Hermana Allen