Yo Marijuana! Get over here!

hey hey!! How are yall?? This week was a wild one for sure. hope y'all are partying it up wherever you are. This week we got transfer news!! and?? I am staying in my area with my comp! Nothing is changing! This is about the most unexpected turn of events we could have gotten, as this will be my FIFTH transfer in this area. (For those unfamiliar with missions, 2-3 transfers in an area is normal. 4 is an incredibly long time. And I have never met another missionary (at least in my mission) that has been in an area for five transfers.) So, I guess I missed out on talking to someone here in Canelones the last 6 months that God needs me to meet in the next 6 weeks. Time to go find them! 

MILAGRITOS:

1. We have this friend who we teach about once a week, but she lives pretty far away so she doesn't want to meet in person, so we just do calls with her once a week. Because she never wants to meet in person, and she hasn't been coming to church or doing any of the things necessary to bring her closer to Christ, and she just liked listening to our spiritual messages, we made the decision to stop teaching her, since were so busy and need to the time to teach other people who actually are interested in progressing and acting on their faith. Well, we decided to stop teaching her, but forgot we had a call with her already planned for thursday, so that night we called her. At the end of the call she said "I have a question for you two, so my daughter listens to all of our calls and she really has been asking me how to pray and she wants to read the bible and the book of mormon and she wants to learn more about God, and also she hasn't been baptized, and I really want her to be able to be baptized, could you guys help me with that?" and we said, "uhhhhh yep. sure can." We explained that in order to do that they have to come to church and we have to explain a little more about the church to her daughter, and then she totally can, and if she's willing to continue to come to church and participate there, she can be baptized! And our good friend Jennifer totally changed her point of view, because now she wants to help her daughter. So now they are willing to come to church and do all the things necessary to be baptized! (Dont worry, well also explain that the mom can get baptized too haha) So yeah, that was a miracle. Maybe the next time one of you missionaries has a person you only teach over the phone, ask if there is anyone else listening because sometimes they want to be baptized? I guess? 

• A lot of our work as missionaries (especially in Uruguay) is to work with the members of the church who don't come to church anymore for one reason or another. I have learned in my mission how crucial it is to work with members, because they have already made covenants with God. They have already committed to living a life focused on God, and if they're not doing that, then that's actually super sad and I'm sure God is sad about it, cause He is keeping His end of the promise and they are not. So we go and visit and try to find lots of inactive members. Well, THREE WHOLE PEOPLE this week said that they want to come back to church! One of them even flagged us down in the street! (This never happens) So yay for prayers and good people with good testimonies. 

• We went back to visit our good friend Carlos, who makes wood art, and he read all three of the pamphlets we gave him! (We gave him 3 cause he liked the pictures of Jesus where He wasn't gringo) He really liked them, but then we tried to talk to him about it and he told us we weren't allowed to talk about religion with him gahaha. So we gave him a Book of Mormon and said.. so I know we are not allowed to talk about this butttttt this is a really good book we wanna give you, we promise it'll change your life if you let it. Aaaand he said he'd read it. So, well visit again and see if he wants to talk a lil later ahaha

• There is this super old lady who lives by our house and she is almost always sitting in the chair next to her window. I noticed her a couple months ago, and we wave to her every time we pass now. Well, this week we decided to stop and talk to her, which was actually super awkward at first through the window, but she just looked so old and so lonely that I loved her from the first moment. So we had a little conversation, and she randomly told us she was 86, and we were like wow thats awesome! and I have no idea why I asked this, but I said "well when do you turn 87?" and she smiled this little soft smile and said "tomorrow" and so then we had a 30 second celebration outside her window and told her happy birthday and CONGRATS for being 87 years old thats a big deal and then it was actually one of the tenderest moments of my mission. FELIZ CUMPLEAÑOS MARIA!!! Super glad were best of friends now (or something like that) 

JAJAJAJAJAJAs of the week:

• Our same good friend Carlos, while we were there he asked us if we wanted any of his art so we walked out of there with a whole lot of wood art. He charged us like literally 10% of what he usually charges people (cause he's like super famous apparently idk) cause he felt bad we lived here without our families and he said we were his friends (And I quote "Jesus is one of my best friends, just like you guys are now!"), so that's a win, and also the nicest thing ever.  I bought a little hummingbird, and he gave me an owl too, for free. He said "now you have to be super careful with them so they don't break" and I said "ok will do" and right then I dropped the owl and this man yells at me "LO ROMPISTE!!!" (aka "YOU BROKE IT!!!") with a look of absolute terror on his face. Lucky for me I did not in fact break it and he thought it was funny enough that he wasn't too mad ahaha. We've quoted "LO ROMPISTE!"  like a hundred times since.

• I met a dog named marijuana. Pretty much every neighborhood here has a "neighborhood dog" and all the people in the neighborhood just kinda take turns giving it food and a place to sleep. Kinda tender actually. Well, the neighborhood dog I met this week was named Marijuana, cause apparently one time some guy yelled marijuana at it for some reason and now it doesn't respond to any other name. 

• On Tuesday we had like 4 lessons cancel in a row, so we went out to knock doors and talk to people on the streets for literally 3 hours or more. And it should not have been as funny as it was, but quite literally EVERY SINGLE PERSON said no. Usually we get a few that say to come back another day, a couple that want to hear a message, and maybe one or two phone numbers, but literally for several hours on end we faced some of the rudest rejection I've gotten on the mission, over and over and over again. Me and Hna Rios left every house practically cackling cause it became so funny. Every single house we went to we said "This is the one, I know it". Twas not the one. But I thought it was quite hilarious, so genuinely we call that a win. The only good thing that happened was that one random woman I have never seen in my life sped past us on her bike and saw us and said "THIS SUNDAY IM COMING TO CHURCH" and then practically biffed it on her bike, but kept on going after a couple very sharp swerves across the whole road. I have no idea who she was and I may never see her again, since she did not in fact come to church. We then celebrated our success of the day with some 9pm ice cream in the freezing cold. I quite enjoyed it.

• One of the members of the church got a tattoo this week. it says A+, (insert random number combination here), (insert his name here) and then a phone number. He explained to me that its his blood type, his social security number (or the equivalent of that in Uruguay), his name, and his mom's phone number, in case he was in an accident, then the police would know all his info. Genuinely made me laugh cause if he is in fact in an accident, I dont know if the police usually check for tattoos with their mothers phone number on it, or if people usually have their own names tattooed on themselves. or if you should walk around with your social security number for everyone to see. Either way, I hope he is not in an accident and the police do not even have to look. 

SHPIRITUAL SHPEEL:

I felt super super inspired by the thought in conference "Do you want to be a better missionary? Get to know your Savior." I'm actually not sure who said that or when or if it was said or anything, but that's what I got out of conference. Anyway, one of my biggest weaknesses as a missionary is that I like the Book of Mormon so much that I very very rarely read the Bible. In fact, I definitely haven't read more than a chapter here and there of the bible since seminary, oops. SO! This week I decided to get to know my Savior more, and read the Bible. AND WOAH OKAY I WAS MISSING OUT WHY DID NO ONE TELL ME?? I have started reading the 4 gospels, and then I am going to read 3 Nephi so that I can really truly get up close and personal with my Savior, diving deep into His life, and not just what people say about Him (although that's so seriously good too). I was thinking long and hard about how I want to study the 4 gospels, and I decided to write down every action that Jesus Christ ever does. Whether that be "He saith" or "He stretched forth His hand" or "He slept" or "He healed". Whatever it may be, I have it written down. And woahhhh Jesus Christ is such a cool guy. I sure love Him. I am only halfway through Matthew, but what have I learned so far?

 

1. Jesus talks a lot. He teaches. He opens His mouth. He shares the wisdom and knowledge that He has with others. With His words, He allows and invites people to come unto Him, and to come closer to our Father at the same time. So maybe we should listen.

2. Jesus answers a lot of questions. And most of those questions were not answered in the way the people thought they would be. Whether He decided to speak in parables or He spoke plain and simple truth, because the people had been overcomplicating it, or He just told someone not to worry, almost every question everyone asked, was answered in a way that they were not expecting, but in the way that they needed.

3. While Jesus talks and answers a lot, He also just stays quiet sometimes. He lets His actions speak, and He allows people to feel the spirit through the silence, and receive answers to their questions through the spirit, instead of directly through him sometimes.

4. He walked a lot. Whether to be alone to talk to God, or to go help people, he was always going from one city to another, one house to another, one person to another, one mountain/holy place to another. Some people came to Him, but He went to anyone and everyone who needed it. 

So what can we learn about Jesus today? 

He talks a lot! Maybe we should listen.

He answers our questions a lot! Maybe we should accept those answers.

He is quiet a lot! Maybe we should listen to what the spirit is saying in the silence.

He travels a lot! Maybe have the faith sufficient to let Him travel to you!

And how can we be more like Jesus?

Talk a lot! We can share our knowledge! Share the "good news" of this gospel! Open your mouth and God will fill it!

Answer questions a lot! Don't just talk and talk what you want to say, listen to peoples questions, and answer them. Be there for the people around you, and help them find answers to their questions. Also be an answer to other peoples prayers.

Be still a lot! Let God fill the silence in your life. Let Him speak to you, and also listen to other people, to hear their needs, and to just let them speak.

Go help people a lot! Some of us are traveling away from home to help people. Awesome! Some of us can just travel next door, to the nearest town, to the nearest temple, or to the nearest crosswalk that has an old lady carrying groceries. Awesome! Just GO and find the people that need help! And also GO and find sacred spaces where you can talk to God. 

That's about it! I hope you all have a fantastic week! Love you all!

- hermana allen