February 29, 2016

And then there was one.

holy moly. how is it leap day? how is it almost march? how is it that i'm coming home next week? my mind is all over the place. 

Here's my word dump from the week, I apologize in advanced if it's scattered. 

Monday night we were planning on another lesson with Anthony but it fell through, instead we were able to go over to a family's house that have been struggling the past few months and did family home evening with them. They have the most darling kids, I'll miss them! Monday night it started to settle in that I was down to 2 weeks, to which Sister Munns (that darling girl, I love her so) asked me what I really wanted to do this week. I told her that all I wanted was to serve those around us. We've already established several times, the people in mountain house aren't too crazy about us, but that doesn't mean we can't serve! Despite not getting to teach or talk to a lot of people, we could come home at the end of the each day knowing we'd done our best, served and talked with everyone we could. 

Thursday Sister Palmer came out and worked with us for a few hours. I'm always a little nervous when she spends a few hours with us. We weren't planning on her in our area and one of our lessons fell through so when she got there we told her we didn't have very many people to try and instead went contacting at the park. It's gorgeous right now, I love this time of year. While we were with sister Palmer, we tried a less active part member family. We've gone by a few times and the non-member wife has answered and reluctantly told us a good time to come back and then cancels that morning. When we knocked on the door, their son answered the door and told us his parents weren't home. We were still outside deciding where to try next when they both pulled up and invited us inside! The wife hit it off right away with sister palmer, especially when she found out that Sister palmer was catholic before she joined the church. We had a really great discussion and were able to set up a time to come back and start doing practice lessons for their two younger sons that she would like to get baptized when they turn 8. So hey, not too shabby! Sister palmer is such a special person, we're so thankful that she was with us to make that connection with his wife in a way we wouldn't have been able to. 

I'm looking over my planner at what we did the rest of the week...not a whole lot to report on. Sunday we had ward conference, we have the most incredible stake president. By far my favorite that I've had on my mission. We were waiting for sacrament meeting to start and there still weren't very many members there, when he came over to talk with us for a few minutes. When he asked us if we were having any teaching opportunities we told him we had some, but not a lot. He told us to remember that the efforts we make don't go unnoticed and are never wasted. Sometimes it feels like we don't do a whole lot and people ignore us but it can take a long time for some people. He told us that missionaries in one of the other zones started working with a less active part member family and that they'd gotten baptized the night before. Turns out the older brother (husband? can't remember which one) was in young men's with our stake president when he was a leader and that it had been 13 or so years but ended up baptizing the rest of his family. I don't have all of the details but how cool, right? It was a tender mercy to talk with him and how understanding he was. 

The members in our ward keep asking me how many days left and how I'm feeling. I spent a few minutes on Saturday and talked with one of our ward missionaries who served in Germany. I asked her how she felt when she was almost done with her mission. Her answer? Tired. I was really, really tired and knew that it was time to come home and move onto the next chapter. So I feel more comfortable with a week left to say that I'm looking forward to this next chapter. Of course I'm going to miss this and will always be so thankful for how I've learned and grown in so many ways but I know it's time to move forward to what the Lord has waiting for me. We have a zone meeting on Thursday and I've been asked to bear my testimony. I'm sure I'll be a wreck. I'll probably spend some time next week with some final thoughts, but I'll go ahead and say now how grateful I am for the last 17 months. The ups and downs, good and bad. Joys and trials. I can't really put into words all the thoughts in my head, the happiness and peace I feel bubbling over. Thank you dear family and friends for your constant love and support. I'm looking forward to my last week and giving this my all. 

I wish you all a happy and safe week. 
Love to you all!

Sister Allen 

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