November 30, 2015

Who invited them?

Where to begin, where to begin. I'm so unfocused right now... I'll probably sound like a crazy person, so just bear with me. So, hello!

Thanksgiving was so much fun! We got to spend the whole day with different families and had a total blast. We went to several different homes where there were non-members; it cracks me up to walk into a house where non-members are, not expecting mormon missionaries to walk through the door and their entire demeanor changes. They're laughing and having a good time, they see us and just like that their faces drop and it's blank stares, like who they heck invited them? Yes, we love it. We were invited over to one house for dessert and I asked for a slice of the pecan pie that looked delicious, the sister says to me  "oh you might not want to eat that..." and I ask why? and tells me "they put some bourbon in it, it'll burn going down" I decided it'd be better if I didn't eat it and went with pumpkin instead haha. We found out that other missionaries didn't have very many appointments or places to be for Thanksgiving, so we were so thankful to have set up several places to be so that we stayed happy and busy all day. We ate so much through out the day, more than I have probably my entire mission. I've discovered expanding stomach and being able to eat more than you would like is definitely a gift from the spirit to missionaries. We were both so done with food by the end of the day. We had a backseat full of leftovers...it was crazy. 

On Tuesday we attended a mission leadership council and set baptismal goals missionary/month. I won't say the number and I'll be honest the council was hard to follow everyone's comments were all over the place but we all ended up giving a number by the end of the meeting that made me want to cry. I thought to myself, I can't do that! None of our investigators want to get baptized, we have sisters all over the mission, I just can't do it and settled on a number lower but still looked and felt okay. Thankfully on Friday we attended several other meetings (the zone leaders and sister training leaders bring back to the rest of the missionaries what was discussed during that meeting earlier that week) as we were discussing with these other missionaries, Sister Neeley and I were given the motivation we both needed that despite working with sisters and our area slowing down we will find people to teach. I was given the not so subtle poke from the spirit that I needed to have more faith. Trust in the Lord and in his hand as he works in our area, despite not getting to work there all the time. Good things will happen, and if we don't achieve the goal or that number we have set we can know that we tried and did everything we could. So Sister Neeley and I are really looking forward to December and working in Mountain House. The church just launched a new video: A Savior is Born. It's powerful, I loved the video from last year so much, He is the Gift, we're excited to use the cards we've been given and to share this video with those around us. You should too! 

Monique came to church on Sunday! We were supposed to have a lesson with her on Saturday but it didn't end up working out. Sacrament meeting went really well; towards the end I leaned over to my companion and asked if she thought we should change the gospel principles lesson for the second hour. We texted our ward mission leader before sacrament meeting ended and he said he would take care of it. I guess after he went up to the teacher and asked if we could change the lesson. She told him to give her 5 minutes and she would have a lesson. We've been going through the gospel principles manual and the next lesson was about judgement day...definitely important, we all need to know about it but maybe not the most appropriate thing to share and discuss while an investigator is there and has questions/concerns with more basic things. Instead the lesson was about prayer; something Monique has been struggling with. The way she explains to us she says God has already given me everything I need so why would I need to ask for more? We try to explain that yes we can offer and we should give prayers of thanksgiving, but it's also important and critical that we ask questions with a sincere desire to have them answered but that really only comes through prayer. It was an excellent lesson, we're thankful for that sister who was willing to change the lesson at such short notice and for it going exactly the way it needed to. Please keep Monique in your prayers! 

I need to get going, again sorry for being a crazy person and how scrambled this email is, I'm happy and doing great. Thank you for all your fun emails! I'm thankful for you all! Here are a few pictures from thanksgiving having too much fun drinking our sparkling cider. And preparation day playing football. I actually participated AND scored a touchdown. Who are we kidding, no I didn't, I just stood there. But at least I was there, right? 
Have a great week,

Sister Allen 

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