November 3, 2014

I Arrive In Sacramento Monday, October 13, 2014

Hello All! What a week I tell you!

I arrived Tuesday and then we all stayed in the area for the evening. The next morning we all met our trainers and went to our different areas. My trainer is Sister Phothiworn (the h's and the r are silent so it's pronounced potiwon). She's from Thailand but moved to Utah a few years ago and was baptized about 3ish years ago with her family and has been out for 14 months. She's only trained one other time but she really loves this week, especially since she's a convert to the church. She is adorable, seriously family, adorable. I have a few pictures with her from this past week. Prayers about having a great trainer have definitely been answered. Excited about the work, not trunky in the slightest (even if she does only have 2 transfers left after this one) and so loving towards everyone. She's trying really hard with her English, so sometimes I have a hard time understanding her and she gets frustrated when she's talking and people can't understand what she's trying to say. But she's already teaching me so much about the area and mission life. Since she's my trainer we'll be together for 2 transfers so about 12 weeks. Also, we have a car and Sister P (phothiworn--takes a while to type ha) isn't able to drive so guess who's driving for the next 12 weeks? Thiiissss giirrrrl! Holla! :) 

Our area is East Sacramento and we're in the Ashton Park ward. The ward members are incredible; our bishop and the ward mission leader are so supportive of us. Apparently this ward hasn't had baptisms in about 4 years...so it's kind of a hard area. Lots of inactive members that aren't interested in going to church and they're especially not interested in having us visit and see how they're doing. So keep it in your prayers that the lord will continue to prepare the people in this area and that we will be able to find them!

We have a few investigators right now: Kirk that lives with Colleen who is a less active but she's recently started coming back to church. They come to church every week and love the ward. He has a problem with smoking and has been taking the lessons from the missionaries for the past several months but he has an incredible testimony. He loved conference last weekend and bore his testimony yesterday at church and quoted one of the talks given. He always has tons of questions for the missionaries and when we leave him with more chapters to read from the Book of Mormon he truly feasts upon the word. Using the footnotes, comparing them to the bible...He's incredible. His baptism is set for the beginning of Dec so keep him in your prayers!

Then there's Lawrence haha, he looks kinda scary with all of his tattoos but he's the sweetest guy. His baptism date is set for Oct 25th but also has a problem with smoking...so we'll have to see how that goes. Not sure if he understands the commitment of word of wisdom and language and all of the other commandments the lord has so hopefully we can continue working with him on those.

Besides the two, we work with lots of less-active members and potential investigators so Sister P  keeps us busy with visiting lots of people. 

The spirit is strong and the church is true. It's humbling to be here and let go of being so self-reliant and learn to depend more on my companion and the Lord...it was hard the past few days with the adjustment but hopefully things will keep getting better. I get frustrated with myself at times but I have to remember that I've only been here 5 days so it's okay if I don't know everything. 

I'm looking forward to another great week, thank you for all of your prayers and support!

Have a great week, 

Sister Allen

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