Wait. Did you leave your sock in the microwave?!?

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!!!! This is my favorite day of the year, so CONGRATS TO EVERYONE WHO GETS TO CELEBRATE IT!!! Go out there and party hard.

JAJAJAJAJAJAJAs: 

• I changed the title of "THINGS THAT MADE ME LAUGH" cause I never liked that title so yeah. And here, for the letter J, instead of making a H sound like a lot of South and Central America, it's more of a guttural throat sounds so I don't know how to explain to you how this jajajajaja is pronounced, but if anyone wants a voice recording of it, I will gladly send each of you individually one. That is all. 

• This is an actual conversation I had this week. With a full grown woman who has two children. "Is snow hot or cold?" -her
  "Uh... cold?" -me
  "NO ITS HOT. If you wanna get warm, you just gotta lay down in it or eat it" -her
  "........*long pause*..... no way! I didn't know that!!!!" -me
  Anyway so don't believe everything you read on the internet. Especially if you've never touched snow before. 

• Who knew that smashed up pinto beans and hot water and a cocoa powder in a mug would be good? (The answer is nobody. Nobody thinks it's good. Especially me.)

• Hermana Gentry doesn't know what a weather vane is. 

• We have a friend named Martín who comes to our English class, who's like 2% in love with the sister missionaries. And I've explained this before but here they do the European cheek kiss thing to greet people, but as missionaries were not allowed (thank goodness) to do it to men. Cause everyone does it to EVERYONE like everyone is out here kissing each others spouses. Anyway, all the men in our ward know this, and it's usually not a problem, and when it is you just stick your hand out for a fist bump and they don't go in for the cheek kiss, but with Martín, I stuck out my fist and he fist bumped it and then went in for the full hug and cheek kiss. Ruined my life honestly. Don't recommend cheek kissing men with beards. It's weird. 

• People here when they don't know what to say they just ask how we are doing, and its kinda hilarious cause every conversation goes a little something like they "oh how are you??" "I'm good I'm good!" "How are you doing?" "I've been good!!" "How was your week?" "It was good, super cold, but good!" "Oh that's good, how's your family?" "Oh they're good they're good!" "So... how are you?" "I'm doing pretty good!!" Guys. I wish I was exaggerating. Its so bad. I've gotten better at actually giving people information to comment on, like "oh this week was pretty busy" or "oh we had a few good lessons yeah" but they never do. They seem to just be satisfied with a solid "bien de bien!" So. I guess there's that. 

• Hna Gentry burnt her sock in the microwave. 

MILAGRITOS:

• We had SUCH a good lesson with our friend Enzo! He's been a pain to get in contact with haha, but we finally stopped by his house when he was home (which was a whole miracle in and of itself) and he was like "yes I'd love to meet, I love the book of Mormon we could maybe meet once a week or even twice a week if you want?" And we said... uhhh OKAY!!! He's so cool, he's a professional soccer player and he really is super intrigued by the restoration and has such a testimony of God and His help in our lives. It's kinda awesome. Prayers for Enzo!! 

• This week, I was just reminded again and again of the love that God has for His kids. And He seems to like His kids in Canelones, Uruguay more than the rest of them. Haha, that's a joke but it really is really amazing to watch miracles unfold in the lives of my friends. I seriously love the members here so much. Each and every one of them have their hard times, their trials, the yearnings of their heart, which I only know a sliver of, and yet their faith just explodes from their eyeballs. It's incredible. Every day I just try to be a little bit more like them, loving unconditionally, always ready to serve others, to share their testimony, and increase their faith. Ugh, they're so good. I kinda love them all, we're all best friends now and I love it. 

• One of the frustrating things about being a missionary is just how many people need help. Just so so many people every day. And we tell people all the time we're praying for them, and sometimes it's hard to remember everyone, so a whole lot of prayers consist of "please bless all the people I said I'd pray for" but this week me and Hermana Gentry have put forth an effort to make a list of all the people that need prayers. And it's changed so much. Cause at night when we have a comp prayer, to pray for every individual person and their specific needs, there's power in it. And there are more people added to the list every day. Our prayers are getting kinda excessively long jaja but there is something about seeing someone's eyes change when they can't find a lot of hope in life, and you tell them that you pray for them every night. A little spark of hope goes off, and I hope for just a second they can understand that God loves them SO much, and so do we. A girl this week who hadn't been texted in over a year, texted us to tell us her mom was really sick, and they had tried everything, so her last hope was to find the number of the missionaries and ask for prayers. And I don't know how her mom is feeling exactly, but she did say about a million times how grateful she was for our prayers, and shes felt peace from God this week, and has turned to Him more than she ever has. Prayer is real. It works. And God is good. 

SPIRITUAL THOUGHT: 

Guys. Jesus is so good. I was reading in the Bible the other day and I read John 6:2 "And a great multitude followed him, because they saw his miracles which he did on them that were diseased." And I had the thought, what do you think was the individual intent of each of those people that were following Him? It says a great multitude, and every great multitude has a great number individual people, thoughts, actions, reasons for doing things, etc. Do you think some of those people were kinda like the kid in incredibles when Mr. Incredible goes "what are you waiting for?" And the kid goes "I dunno, something amAZing I guEsssss"? Do you think others had their own personal, less obvious diseases, and were wondering if Christ would turn their way, and heal them of their afflictions? Do you think others were simply drawn to the light in His eyes and His goodness? I'm willing to bet there were all of those reasons and more. And it got me thinking, what is everyone's reason for following Jesus? I want a personal interview with everyone and ask them WHY they follow Jesus? (PS if you want to email me and let me know why you follow Jesus I would truly love that more than life itself) and then I got thinking, why do I follow Jesus? What are my reasons, my thought processes, my WHY's for following Him? I found a scripture this morning that I think conveys a lot of it in D&C 45:3-5 "Listen to him who is the advocate with the Father, who is pleading your cause before him— Saying: Father, behold the sufferings and death of him who did no sin, in whom thou wast well pleased; behold the blood of thy Son which was shed, the blood of him whom thou gavest that thyself might be glorified; Wherefore, Father, spare these my brethren that believe on my name, that they may come unto me and have everlasting life." One of my favorite names for Christ is ADVOCATE because truly, He knows us personally, individually, and wholly, and He knows God the same way, so truly, He is the only one who can fully advocate for us, because of His knowledge about our true character and that of God. He has suffered for us, died for us, only to invite us to come unto Him. After all He did, all He gives us is an invitation, it's not forced. He's so good and I'm so grateful. 

LOVE YOU ALL!! GO BLOW SOMETHING UP TONIGHT!!

- hermana allen