Tan Joe

Hello hello!! This week was literally insane. So much happened, and it was so crazy busy, but somehow it was the slowest week of my mission I swear. I'm pretty sure it's been at least a month since last Monday. As a summary of this week, we had transfers. Hna Gentry left for a different area, which was definitely the worst part of the week. All the members adore her and miss her a lot, and our "party hard, work hard" era has come to an end. Tragic, but it was good while it lasted. I learned a whole lot from her. How to love this gospel, how to love learning, how to validate my feelings :/, how to love hard, how to work hard, and how to play here comes the sun on the guitar. She will be missed. R.I.P.  BUT I got a new comp! Her name is Hermana Rios and she is just the cutest ever. She's from Bolivia, she knows a total of 4 words in English ("nice to meet you") and is super sweet. Definitely been a change, but she's a fabulous missionary and way fun to be around. It's gonna be a good transfer! Aaaand we saw SO many miracles this week, let's get into it!

MILAGRITOS:

• So ya know the family we're teaching? Probably not. We're teaching a family. Lots of kids, really nice. I have been heading over to their house at least once a week, sometimes more for like, months now. I seriously adore this family with my whole heart. I don't actually remember if I put this in my email or not, but to be perfectly honest with yall, when I met the mom, she was wayyy prideful. I say that with the nicest lovingest part of my heart, what she said was right and nothing was gonna change her mind. She was fully convinced that Jesus was not the Son of God, and that Jesus baptized babies, because it says so in the Bible. (I may or may not have told her to find in the Bible where it says that, cause "I haven't read that part yet, I'd love to read it!". She never did find that part. Bummer, I really did want to read it.) Anyway. On Thursday we had a lesson with the family, which turned into just a lesson with Laura. She told us that pretty much her whole life she has smoked, but ever since we started showing up, she has been working to stop smoking. Now keep in mind, we told literally last week that in order to be baptized she had to not smoke. So she still smokes a little, but she thanked us for the spirit we bought and the motivation to better her life. She told us that she essentially knows the Bible cover to cover, but she really doesn't know anything about the Book of Mormon, or modern day prophets, and she's seriously loved learning from us about it. (Yall don't even understand how big of a deal it is that she said the words "I don't know" cause woah.) So now she and her family are reading the book of Mormon every day. She essentially bore her testimony to us that she is so grateful for us coming to her house and teaching her always, and how she is so excited to get baptized but she's going to wait because she needs to change first. Because what's the point of baptism if you aren't a different person after whos going to follow the commandments for the rest of your life? (Her words not mine) it seems like we've taught her a whole lot, and all the rest she's figured out on her own. I can honestly say she's so humble now. Always ready to learn more, ready to change her life, ready to put God first every day of her life. Miracles are real guys. Prayers for Laura and her family please!!

• I think a couple of weeks ago I wrote about how we were walking down the street and some guy named Pablo said "hey, do you two have a book of mormon to give me?" and I know we've all heard those miracle missionary stories like that, but let me just tell you, that does not happen every day. In fact, I've been doing this for almost 400 days now and it has happened 1/400 days. But he's a member who hasn't gone to church in yearssss. So we had a mini lesson with him this week, with a couple of stellar members of the ward, and he told us how much of a miracle that really was. He was born into the church, and went to church actively until he was like 20-30 ish i'm not exactly sure. He told us that the other day he was talking to his brother, and they were reminiscing on life, and Pablo realized that the time he was happiest, and most sure of himself, and loved his life the most, was the time when he was going to church every week and participating in the activities and everything. So he decided that day that he was going to find a Book of Mormon to read. He looked online and on facebook but he couldn't find anything. So that night he was trying to figure out how to get himself a Book of Mormon when he realized he needed some food, so he decided to go to the store. Right as he stepped out of his house, we walked by. And we had fully passed him before he yelled out to us because he was in such shock. So yeah. God is a God of miracles. Not only did all that happen, but I distinctly remember trying to decide if I should bring a Book of Mormon in my bag or not that night. We were headed to one lesson, not that far away, and it was night, so no one was gonna be outside, so why would I need to bring an extra copy? Well, I finally decided too, and look how it turned out. Obviously we could have returned later and given him one, but what a testament that God loves His kids, and that He knows our needs right exactly when we need them. He's so good.

• Something the Lord taught me this week was "don't let your circumstances change your standards" Super random but a really random sentence i thought of in the middle of the day today. Whether that is in the mission life, or in life in general, if you could hold standards at one point in your life, you can have those same standards right now. Yes, they might be harder to uphold. So add on some extra love for yourself but keep upholding those standards, no matter what is happening around you or what the people close to you are doing.

JAJAJAJAJAJAs of the week:

• I am gonna be a hundred percent honest, this week wasn't all that horrible, but mostly i was sad the beginning half of the week, and I am not funny in spanish. So I'll work on being funny in Spanish and give you some entertainment next week. For now, the only funny thing I can remember is my comp read the words "thank you" and pronounced it like "tan Joe". That one just about broke me but i'm not allowed to laugh at her english cause she deals with my poor spanish every day. So I didn't actually laugh but internally I did.

• On that same note, a pretty consistent thing that's funny is people trying to speak English to me. Less so with a companion from Bolivia, but just about every day we pass by a person and we say "hola! cómo está?" and they say "hello!" but then there's certain members of the church or people were teaching that learned some phrase in English and repeat it back to me, and 9 times out of 10 I have no idea what they're saying, and it's so awkward because I'm supposed to be the only one in the room who understands it. I've resorted to asking them if they know what it means in Spanish, and then they tell me and I can figure it out. I wish you could hear it, it makes my life some days.

SHPIRITUAL SHPEEL:

We had that lesson with Laura that I talked about earlier, and we had it on Thursday, after transfers. It was Hna Rios first time meeting them, and we got off the call and I was practically in tears because of Laura's faith and testimony and the visible change i've seen in her. And Hna Rios said something to the effect of "wow she's really nice!" and obviously it wasn't her fault, cause she didnt know them, but i wanted to do a cartwheel in that moment, and all she saw right then was a good testimony. Obviously there's nothing she could do about it, but it made me think about God. (Now I'm not here trying to compare myself to God, but I hope yall pick up what Im trying to put down) I have been in this area for months now, helping this family, loving them, teaching them, serving them, and having them help, love, teach, and serve me in return. I have seen them through some of their deepest trials and watched as they have enough faith to keep going every day. That's kinda like God's end of the deal. He sees us through our everything. Loves us through it all, and carries us through our trials. He smiles when we smile and probably wants to do cartwheels when we want to too. He cries when we cry and sends extra blessings when we need it. And us? We're like the person who just showed up here two days ago. We see literal miracles, directly from God, and says "oh that's neat", or "wow, that was cool" or worse off, don't even appreciate them at all. But what we don't see is all the behind the scenes work that had to go on for that miracle to happen. And I'm sure it frustrates God just about every day that He is spending His eternity making our lives better, sending miracles, realigning our paths, and sending people to bless us, and most of the time we don't even recognize it. So take some time this week to recognize God's hand in your life. It's there. He's been working with, serving, loving, and teaching the people you're about to meet. He's been serving, loving and teaching YOU so that you can help others. So look for that. Cause once you see everything that goes on behind the scenes, the story becomes about a hundred times more magical and fascinating and impressive.

That's it! Sorry it was a long one. I love you all. God loves you, and He's working extra hard behind the scenes for you today. Peace out!

-hermana allen