"Nah, I know karate so we chillin'" (but in Spanish)

Yo yo yo it was another miracle-filled, laughter-filled, and spirit-filled week. ¡¡VAMOS ARRIBA!!

MILAGRITOS:

• Our friends Katerín and Richard, who are literally changing their lives before our eyes (it's SO cool to have the opportunity to watch) were able to come to church this week!!! Katerín told us she had work, and there was no way she would be able to come, so we were just hoping and praying Richard would be able to make it. When he didn't show up, we were pretty disappointed, but several minutes after the meeting started, those two came strolling in, hand in hand. Ahhhh me and Hna Gentry didn't quit smiling the whole meeting. AND one of their friends in the ward who they told us over and over that they looked up to him and admired his wisdom and how good he was, just HAPPENED to be talking that day. Gah. God is good. 

• This is kinda a long story, but the long story short is there's this one guy in the ward who kept betting us that we wouldn't be able to have a lesson with this other family in the ward, cause the husband really doesn't like missionaries. So we haven't pushed it, cause we didn't want to upset him. But the other day he walked into his mom's house right at the same time we were visiting her (the cutest little old lady EVER) and talked to us for a bit, and then INVITED us over to his house. Pretty awesome. We won the bet tehe. And had a bomb diggity spiritual lesson so that's so good.

• We had a CRAZY day on Tuesday literally FULL of lessons, and 3 of them got all switched around, but then ended up switching around perfectly so we could do them all and it was so fun. I've literally just come to LOVE testifying of the simple things. You'd think it would get redundant (and honestly some days it does) but 98% of the time I'm in awe of how the simple things change lives. Jesus Christ lives. God loves you. You are His child. The Church of Jesus Christ has been restored on the earth, TODAY! God speaks to us, hoy en día. We can talk to God. Families can be together forever. We have the word of God to lead us and guide us, from prophets all over the world and in every time period. The heavens are OPEN! Life is a blessing, and I'm so grateful to be able to share that with people every day. Teaching is so fun and so so miracle filled. 

• We went and visited our friend Teresa, who is one of the (MANY!!) old ladies we visit all the time. When we passed by her house, someone else was sitting outside, and we got talking and turns out she's a member of the church! And she got baptized a lot of years ago, and hung out with the missionaries all the time. She knows all the doctrine, remembers so many things, sang us a couple hymns she remembers by heart, and told us stories about the missionaries from 60 years ago. She literally told us to come back and visit her, and gave us her phone number. So YAY for Carmen for being so kind and so good!! 

• There's this fruit stand we walk past all the time (there's a million fruit stands but I like this one the best now) and we were walking past it and my brain (the spirit) said "go buy tangerines on your way back" and I said OKAY because DANG the tangerines in Uruguay are UNREAL. Anyway so we went to our lesson, and on our way back we stopped to buy tangerines, and we got talking to the fruit stand guy and he's apparently from Cuba and he's SO cool. He literally asked us what church we're a part of and why we're here and he was so nice and said we can come back any time and talk more about religion. So anyway, yay for promptings from the spirit and good tangerines and kind fruit stand guys. 

JAJAJAJAJAJAJAs of the week:

• I don't know WHAT documentary or news channel everyone in Uruguay watches, but this week the fact that there are some states in the US that the death penalty is still legal has gotten brought up like 6 times. For what? No idea. But anyway people like arguing with us about it and we just say "well we haven't been in the US for a while so we don't know anything" and it's so fun. Anyway. If anyone finds which Uruguayan keeps telling everyone about this, please tell them to stop cause I literally don't know anything about it and people think I'm educated. I'm not. 

• We had a lesson with our good friend Luis and he was a lil late so we texted him and he said "I'll be there super soon" and then literally AN HOUR LATER he goes "I'm almost there I'm just 20 blocks away" and then AN HOUR LATER he said "I'm close" and then FIFTEEN MINUTES later he showed up. It was so chaotic and we had like a 2 second lesson with him cause he didn't have time after that. For anyone wondering, his house is less than 20 blocks away from the church. 

• Some substitute empanada delivery guy showed up this week. Kinda sad we didn't get our regular guy but its okay. He had a 3 inch long pinky nail though so that was interesting. 

• Hermana Gentry started praying in Spanish at 4am in her sleep. 

• Quotes
  "Did you just quote Pokémon?"
  What's your favorite Avenger? "ya know those lil yellow minions?"
  "We shouldn't judge them" -me "I judge them" - Roberto

SHPIRITUAL SHPEEL: 

Yo. I've figured out on my mission (mostly thanks to Hna Gentry and the people here in Canelones) that we need to learn to live our lives. How much of our lives are we spending not living? We already waste enough of it sleeping (don't even get me started on how much we could do if we didn't need sleep) so why do we waste so much of it in our beds staring at the phone or the TV or the wall? Why do we live in the monotony? There are real life moving color changing SUNSETS we have for entertainment! We have playgrounds to play at and families to hang out with and friends to go discover things with and foods to try and experiences to learn from and people to kiss (for some of us) and humans to love and beauty to find and things to create and LIFE TO LIVE!! Yes your bed is comfy. Yes your phone has to charge 16% more. But God literally sent us here to have JOY. To gain KNOWLEDGE. To make DECISIONS. The more joy we have, the more we become like God. The more knowledge we gain (by study and also by faith and also by experiences) the more we become like God. The more decisions we make, the more we become like God. Joseph Smith said "happiness is the objective and design of our existence". So GIVE YOURSELF EXPERIENCES!! Get off your bed and go eat something good or go draw something pretty or go take a walk. The world needs more joy. And believe me, I know joy is found in the comfort of your own home. But God gave us a whole world to explore, and a whole lot of humans to get to know. I have found SO much joy, more than I could have imagined, from learning a new language. From hearing people's stories. From walking streets I don't know to talk to people I've never met. From choosing to love people. From eating gross foods. From talking to the fruit stand guy and the empanada delivery man and the lady who sells us bizcochos. It's kinda fun to wake up every day knowing you're gonna love someone new and learn something new. So get off your bed and go become more like God. There's a WHOLE lot of joy in it. 

That's it for this week. Be kind. Choose joy. Expect miracles. God loves YOU!! 

- hermana allen