"hermana, youre SO white"

Hello hello!! Happy Monday!! As always, I hope it was a great week! My emails have been super long lately, so Ill keep this beginning part short at least.

MILAGRITOS:

• We had a lesson with Laura once again, trying to help her understand a little bit more who prophets are and why we believe in them. This time, we brought the bishops wife to the lesson, and I scarcely have felt the spirit so strongly during a lesson. The questions and doubts and fears that Laura has, are the exact same things that Ines struggled with 30 years ago during her conversion. To hear her testify of Joseph Smith, of repentance, and of the Book of Mormon strengthened my testimony tenfold. Then we got the opportunity to testify and I def got all teary eyed and jumbled up my spanish and Laura looked confused but that spirit I felt in that tiny house that just barely got a roof this week, is some of the strongest spirit Ive felt in my whole life. And I guess Laura felt something too, cause she showed up to church yesterday. Before, shes made just about every excuse to not go, and yesterday she said the kids were screaming and crying and didnt want to go (just the two littlest, the older kids love the church) and Laura said she practically forced them to get ready and go cause she was going to church whether they went or not. So yeah. God changes hearts and minds and makes miracles happen. I love being a missionary.

JAJAJAJAJAJAJAs of the week:

• English Class this week just happened to fall on the 21st of september, and since my comp does not speak english I have full reign over what we learn so english class this week simply me translating the song September like the "do you REMEMBER, the twenty first night of SEPTEMBER" that song. And then I just left it open to free question time about the United States. Yes in some parts it is in fact illegal to litter (that's a wild concept for people here). Each person does in fact have their own personal trash can that they put in front of their house and then a truck (yep, just like the movies!) comes around and dumps it in and then takes it to a big place with lots of trash. If someone puts a TV in said personal trash can, is it illegal to steal said TV? That one is still up in the air. I am actually not sure so if anyone wants to confirm with me yes or no, email me. The English students want to know. Why all their questions were about trash, who knows? But, I enjoyed every second.

• One of the members said "do you miss speaking in english" and I said "sometimes yeah" and this girl just starts speaking to me in near perfect english and we had a full conversation and i didn't even know she spoke english so that was fun. In the middle of the conversation, i don't even remember the context but she goes "hermana, you're SO white" and so i guess I need to get a little tan so that I dont look too gringa.

• Something that happens just. every day. is that the dogs just bark and bark and bark at us. And its been just a constant thing from day one in Uruguay, but Hermana Rios told me that when she had another Latina comp, the dogs never barked at them. So then I started to notice this week that when every other person walks past, the dogs never bark, but every time it's us, they always do. So anyway, we came to the conclusion that the dogs here are racist against white people. Thats all.

• We talked to some super old guy when we passed by his house the other day, and he was like hey i'm a carpenter wanna come see my stuff I've made? and we were like YEAH, so we go to his little shop and he has SO many works of art, all made out of wood. He had birds, and a sculpture of the beatles, and horses, and several of Jesus Christ (which was super convenient to share the gospel) and then he started to tell us about his life, which mostly involved him talking about his wife haha. His wife and him were married for 70 years, and then she passed away 3 years ago, and in his words "our life together was kind of boring, because we never fought in 70 years. i was expecting something exciting when i married her but she just never fought with me." and they also travelled the world together and he told us he has all the money to travel wherever he wants now, but he doesn't want to because she won't be there, so instead he lives in his tiny lil house and continues to make lil wooden birds. so.... i now have heightened expectations for my marriage. He also went on a rant how he doesnt like that in every picture Jesus is blonde and gringo. And his whole life he has been looking for a picture of Jesus thats not blonde and looks super white. So I told him we'd come back next week with pictures of not blonde Jesus. Hope he likes them. AAAND we got to testify of the Plan of Salvation, that we know he will see his wife again, but if he wants to know how he can do that? Read this book! Hahaha I hope he does.

• We discovered wheelchairs in the chapel of some of the hermanas in our district. Anyone who has ever played wheelchair basketball, I fully respect you that is HARD STUFF.

SHPIRITUAL SHPEEL:

I think the Lord needed me to learn to be obedient this week. I got slammed with like 20 different talks and scriptures and lessons about being obedient. I think I got the message but well see how it goes. First, my good friend (THANKS MIA!!) sent me a top secret talk (or something like that idk) by Elder Bednar, and it really is phenomenal. My favorite part was this. He starts by quoting Doctrine and Covenants 130:18-19:

"Whatever principle of intelligence we attain unto in this life, it will rise with us in the resurrection."

That's not a degree.

"And if a person gains more knowledge and intelligence in this life through his diligence and obedience than another, he will have so much the advantage in the world to come..

"The order in which knowledge and intelligence are listed in verse 19 is instructive-with knowledge first and intelligence second. Also, the parallel sequencing between knowledge and intelligence and the means by which they are acquired should be considered:

"And if a person gains more knowledge and intelligence in this life through his diligence and obedience."

Interestingly, knowledge is associated with diligence. Significantly, intelligence is linked to obedience.

Through persistent, effective, and diligent work, a person can accumulate knowledge in the form of facts, data, information, and experience. Intelligence, brothers and sisters, can only be gained through obedience."

Blew my mind, okay? AND THEN I open my scriptures to Alma 37:35, which says "O, remember, my son, and learn wisdom in thy youth; yea, learn in thy youth to keep the commandments of God." Is that not, exactly what the talk says from Elder Bednar? (Just switch the word intelligence to the word wisdom. Learning wisdom is learning obedience. So then I look at a list I made a while back, which was the difference between wisdom and knowledge. And woah. Blew my mind even more. The definition of wisdom (which I think I shared here a few months back but none of you will remember so here we go) is ... "The ability or gift from God to judge correctly. A person gains wisdom through experience and study and by following God’s counsel. Without God’s help, man does not have true wisdom." So then we look at just about every scripture about wisdom, and we can switch the word "wisdom" or "wise" for "obedience" or "obedient". For example: "Happy is the man that finds wisdom" (Proverbs 3) aka "I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God." (Mosiah 2:41) or "But behold, all things have been done in the wisdom of him who knoweth all things." aka "But behold, all things have been done [by the obedience] of him who knoweth all things." (2 Nephi 2:24) Because Jesus Christ was perfectly obedient, was He not? Also, the Word of Wisdom? aka the Word of Obedience? Yep. So yeah, I could go on and on forever, but I think yall get the vibe. By being obedient, we gain wisdom. And wisdom is exactly what we need in order to be saved. If we are obedient in everything we do, we will know exactly what the Lord has in store for us. Several times this week, I followed a prompting to knock on a door, and that person then did not want to hear our message. But would I walk around thinking about how I didn't follow the prompting and I would never KNOW if they wanted the gospel or not? Yep. Definitely there are still super random people on my mission that I saw one time on the street that I still regret not following a prompting to talk to them. But by being obedient, I give God a chance to give me the wisdom and that I was obedient and did my part, and I now know for sure what they would have said, instead of being left wondering. Anyway, if you want to be smarter, be obedient. To the Lord specifically, cause being obedient to the world is a dangerous game to play. You don't have to be perfect, but we must at least TRY to be obedient, and then apply the Savior's grace when needed (it's always needed). So go out there and find wisdom!

I love you all! Go be obedient to the Lord! Go love people a little extra this week, and be extra kind. Lots of people need it. Love you all!

-hermana allen