Toothless and kissing The Book of Mormon

Helloooooo all!!! Woah. This week was a lot. It was definitely one of the harder weeks on my mission, and all at the same time, one of the best weeks ever. I have found I love writing these weekly emails cause I get to look back on all the good things that happened, and focus on those. Let's make it happen!

MILAG(RÍSIMOS):

• This week I put in an effort to learn 3 new people's stories every day. Not just say "hi we're missionaries and this is what we believe and why you should believe it too" but to really learn who people are and their life stories. And I LOVED it. I met so many fun people. Waiting for a bus I met a lady who had never heard of missionaries before, but she really loved what we were doing. She's lived in a tiny little town her whole life and just adores it, she has 3 kids and 2 grandkids and some other things you guys don't care about. On the bus I met Carlos who runs a huge construction company in Uruguay, who believes firmly in God, but hasn't been to church in 3 months, but took it as a sign that I showed up that he should go back to church. For years, him and his brother sold drugs on the street, and then about 10 years ago he turned his life around and now is really successful in a business that's a little bit better than drugs. He thought the Book of Mormon was such a cool concept and I sure hope he's reading the one I gave him. We met Olivia and Victoria who are the nicest girls ever, really super confused about why an American girl was in their town, and don't believe in anything cause they went to Catholic school and hated it ahaha. I met Olga who's an evangelical missionary every Thursday and thanked us for our work, even though she knew her work was better. Gahaha. I could go on and on. It literally just FILLED ME to the brim to learn people's stories. Were a lot of people interested in the gospel? Not that much. But did a lot of people say that they didn't know missionaries were normal people until now and did I get to testify about things that pertained to their lives? Yep. So maybe we did some good somewhere.

• I have been having a week where everything on the outside is going SO good, and yet somehow my brain has taken it as an excuse to throw a party and make my life a little harder. But God has showed up in more ways than I can count this week. From flipping open randomly to EXACTLY a chapter I needed in the scriptures, to my comp sharing what she learned in personal study, to things members have said, to miracles I've watched right in front of my eyes, God has made Himself known this week. He's real. And it's really cool to get VIP seats to His work.

• PRESIDENT NELSON TURNED 98 THIS WEEK. NINETY EIGHT. That's a lot.

• We had a lesson with a guy who I thought wasn't interested at all cause every time we try to have a lesson he says "sorry I'm walking outside I can't right now". (And he's been doing that for months) But finally he didn't walk outside one morning (i guess?) so we called him. And dang. It was such a fun lesson and I felt the spirit so much. And at the end he said "so when and where do you guys meet for church" and that's not super rare for people to ask us, but it's also not super common, so we were like okay well send you the info. And then. He actually showed up to church. That was a whole real life miracle right there. And he loved it!! Three cheers for Yoeldys.

• Thiago, Aaron, and Mía got baptized this week!!! Honestly every baptism is a miracle, but I have never seen anything like the miracles after miracles after miracles that the Lord provided for them to be able to be baptized. I could go on forever explaining it all, but let's just say that God is good. And I adore those kids more than anything. They are so good and so righteous and when things go wrong, they sent us "hermanas I still want to get baptized so bad" texts. And here they are. Living proof that God is good even when life is hard.

JAJAJAJAJAJAJAs of the week:

• This happened last week but I forgot to put it in. My comp is from Bolivia and she had absolutely no clue what football is (the American kind) except that they wear helmets. So I had the gran opportunity of explaining to her, in Spanish, using a ping pong table as a pretend field, how to play football. Let's keep in mind 1. I have no idea how to play football. And 2. I have no idea how to say tackle, fumble, helmet, jersey, touchdown, and pretty much every football word in Spanish. There was a lot of acting going on. I think she understands now, although she was crying she was laughing so hard so idk if she could see what I was doing.

• I'm putting this under jajajajas cause it made me laugh although maybe someday it'll be a miracle. I'm just gonna head this with, missionaries aren't perfect. So please forgive me ahead of time for all the times I messed up in this story. Essentially, I've been serving in this area for 6 months now. And I have said hola to I swear the entire city at this point. And I'm sure I've said hola to several people more than once, but I sure don't remember it. But there's this one guy I know I've said hi to like 3 times cause I remembered him the 2nd and 3rd time, which is super rare for me to remember. So after I saw him the 3rd time I was like huh this is God telling me to talk to him. So a few weeks ago I said a prayer and asked God to put him in my path again so I could talk to him. Well, on Monday I walked passed him and he was painting a fence. We were hurrying to a lesson and I didn't realize it was him until it was "too late" and so I didn't talk to him. So then I felt super bad and I told Heavenly Father I was sorry and to please put him in my path again and I promised I would talk to him. Well, literally THE NEXT DAY, we are practically running to the church cause we're late for a lesson, and we passed him again and I wasn't looking over at him until again it was "too late" but at that point I felt awful cause I literally had promised God I would talk to him. So then we get to the church, and I realized I forgot the keys, so we have to walk all the back home and back to the church, and at that point we were gonna be a full half hour late, so I was super annoyed with myself for lots of reasons until I realized we had to pass my good friend again, and at that point I practically laughed out loud and said "very funny God, very funny. ... I'll go talk to him." and so at that point I didn't even try to swerve it I just walked up to him and started talking and he was so nice and has a really strong belief in God. So we were talking for a sec (and Hna Rios was about ready to kill me cause we were already so late and I hadn't told her that God told me to talk to him) and turns out he knows a couple members of the ward, and so I asked him if he'd be interested in learning more about what they believe. And you know what? This man said no. Just straight up. No. And I said, sir if you had ANY IDEA the literal WAR me and God just had over you, you'd at least let me give you a pamphlet. So anyway I walked away from that one laughing pretty hard and telling God that maybe next time I'd follow promptings from the spirit the first time. And I found out I got the time wrong so we weren't even late to our lesson anyway. Now everyone go pray for Carlito so that he'll understand that God loves Him enough to battle a missionary over him. That's all.

• We were walking down the street (as we do) and waving hola to people. This car passed driving kinda slow and with their window down so I waved and said hi and this man just STARED at me and practically stopped the car as we walked past. Now it was a little bit weird, but not that weird cause Im the only white person in this city so I get a whole lot of stares. Then we keep walking and all of a sudden this dude passes us again and starts blowing kisses and gives me a giant hand heart and i was like uhhhhh okay, so then we turn like two more streets and this dude pulls up YET again and stops his car right next to us and goes "can i get your number?" and i had to do everything i could not to laugh but i told him we were missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and if he wanted to learn about Jesus I would absolutely love to give him my number so we could talk. And I guess he wanted to learn about Jesus cause he said yes, and he asked for my name and then he sped off. Still havent heard from him. Maybe he didnt actually wanna hear about Jesus? Who knows.

SHPIRITUAL SHPEEL:

I was reading in Alma this week and oh my word I forget every day how good The Book of Mormon is and then I read it every day and I remember again. So good. I was reading the story about Ammon and how he chops off all the arms. And Ive heard that story a hundred times, but this time I was impressed by his love, in sharing the gospel and in living his life. He did everything because he chose to love the Lord, and because he chose to love the people that were supposed to be his enemies. Talking about the king of the land, its says "And when he saw that Ammon had no desire to destroy him, and when he also saw the great love he had for his son Lamoni, he was astonished exceedingly". Something I have learned a lot on my mission is the sheer impact of pure love. Yes we hear every day that we need more love. But there are really a lot of people in this world who have rarely been the recipient of true love. Not just the romantic kind. The Christlike kind. Like the King, when someone truly loves them, they are "astonished exceedingly". Every time I get to truly love someone, and watched them be taken aback by it, it makes me equal parts sad and happy, because I know those people are not used to that love. But I can be an instrument in the Lords hands to love the people of Canelones Uruguay? What a privilege! Lets go let more people know that they are loved. By God, by our Savior, and by YOU! I have learned a lot about love from kids, and especially the kids in the family that was baptized this week. They seem to have a never ending supply of hugs, of "te amos" and "te quieros" and sometimes they just look at us with love and light and goodness bursting out of their eyeballs. And it reminds me every time of the Saviors invitation to be like little children. These kids have been through more than I can imagine in their little lifetimes. And they have welcomed and loved a girl from a different country, who speaks a different language, who had different beliefs, who looks a little different, and whos just about the opposite in all the ways you can think of. But we all get to share a love of Christ. And THAT is what bonds us together. "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." Go and be a disciple of Christ. And amaze people with your love. Cause a life changes when that life is a recipient of Christlike love.

So sorry that was excessively long. My bad. Have a great week!! I love you all!!

love, hermana allen