hermanas you do realize lots of people died in your house right?

Wow. This week was wild. Today were supposed to get transfer news, but we havent gotten it yet, so I guess next week I could be in a new area. Or I could be spending 9 months in this area. We shall see. 

MILAGRITOS: 

• I felt inspired by one of my fellow missionary friends who went on an exchange here in Canelones and felt inspired to knock on a door and turns out it's the most elect person ever. Well, I decided to pay attention more to the spirit while we were walking and at one point this one door caught my attention so we knocked at it. Aaaaand no one answered haha. But then I was like welp we've got a few minutes might as well knock a couple more doors. So we crossed the street (for no reason) and started knocking there and a member who we haven't been able to get in contact with in MONTHS was there. She was just working there but she was like HERMANAS HOW ARE YOU??? she was so happy to see us and we were just as happy to see her. It was kinda a mini miracle. Then we knocked a couple more doors and two more people said yes. So I learned in that moment that maybe listening to the spirit means knocking at one wrong door so you'll stop and look around enough to knock the right doors. 

JAJAJAJAJAJAJAs of the week:

• On our way to a lesson, it started raining harder than I've ever seen it rain, with raindrops thicker than I've ever seen them. And we may have forgotten rainjackets and umbrellas so we got to our friends house just absolutely drenched haha but the best part was that our friend is an old lady so she gave us clothes to wear and me and hna Rios were definitely lookin pretty good for the rest of that day wearing our old lady clothes that didn't fit haha. 

• I have found that summer officially starts here in Uruguay once 1. Everyone is outside their house, just. Always. (And yet all they do is complain about the sun?) And 2. Not a single man is wearing a shirt. It does not matter the age, body type, amount of surgery scars, hernias, tumors, or wrinkles these men have. They are all shirtless. A sight to see honestly. I almost liked winter better. 

• I found out the house that I've been living in for 7 months used to be a sick house for old people. AKA like 40 people have died here. (That's a wildly rough estimate I'm gonna hope it's not any more than that) So yeah that's cute.

• Monday-Wednesday I had the grand opportunity to hang out with Hna Cabrera, which was so fun. Hna Cabrera was deathly ill so to give her a break I got to hang out with her. She is one of the most hard working people I know so to convince her to take a break was nearly impossible but I did it and she needed it. But it was one of the weirdest days of my mission. We simply. Did nothing. She slept pretty much the whole day, and I read my scriptures, organized the uno cards in number order and then by color, rearranged the floor tiles, read my scriptures some more, ordered empanadas, watched luz de las naciones, read my scriptures, and played housewife for the day haha it was quite strange. The next day we got on a bus and went to a super boujee hospital here in Montevideo. It's apparently the best hospital in Latin America cause it's the British hospital and to be able to work there you have to study in England for a while and speak fluent English. So imagine my surprise when I walk in and the conversations are half in Spanish but with every accent imaginable, and half in English, but with only British accents. I enjoyed every second, truly. 

SHPIRITUAL SHPEEL: 

I have no idea why, but the quote from Les Mis "to love another person is to see the face of God" has been running through my head all week.

In the scriptures, there are very few people that have recorded seeing the face of God. Joseph Smith and Moses being two of them. Several people have seen Jesus Christ, but to see GOD is a whole nother matter. (Also to see Jesus Christ is a really big thing too. What I would give. Anyway). 

These two SAW God. With their very own eyeballs. And they FELT His presence and HEARD His voice. So then I got thinking, if we can't see God with our physical eyes or hear Him with our physical ears, what must we do to have our spiritual ears and eyes open to see His face?

Well, maybe good ole Victor Hugo had it right. Maybe we love another person. Maybe we love lots of other persons. Not just through the good, happy, "above the brightness of the sun" moments. But through the "ready to sink into despair" moments too.

The people I love most in this world are the people who I have watched go through really hard things. And the people who I have let watch me while I go through hard things. (And the people I love the second most in this life, are absolute strangers. Because God lets me see them how He sees them. His kids. Nothing more, nothing less. And I get to borrow His love to give to them. And that's why I love talking to strangers every day. But that's another shpiritual shpeel for another day.) As we share our love, without limits, with other people, we are able to see the face of God, with our spiritual eyes. Understand a little bit more who He is. The kindness and light He has in His eyes. The goodness He has in His gaze. The mercy and love in His smile. As we see those attributes in others, we can combine all those good things to create the face of our God, who is kind and full of light and good and merciful and loving. Even through the hard. Especially through the hard. Cause He's not a partial God. He loves us when we love Him, and He loves us when we are shaking our fist at Him, angry at what He's given us. Cause He's the perfect example of love.

So let's go love one another. And see the face of God replicated a billion times over on the faces of every one of your brothers and sisters. 

That's about it for the week, I hope you've had a great week and you remember that Jesus loves you.

- hermana allen