July 8, 2003

An email from Sr. Allen...

 

hello everybody,

how is everyone doing? thank you for all the emails. :) i LOVE hearing how everyone is doing.

things were good this week but once again we didnt get to go out too much because my companion is still sick. they really dont know what is going on with her, but i wish they did. sadly, she might be leaving this week on a 30 day medical leave to get things back to normal. she is still trying to decide what to do and i have given her multiple pep talks about how staying out here would be the best idea but that ill support her no matter what. its really going to be sad if she wont stay out here. we work really well together and she has already trained and taught me so many things. Ugh...its going to be really hard if she leaves but the Lord will find me another great companion if she does. Plus, hopefully she will be back after a month and then we can do what we do best again. we will find out today what is going to happen. i dont know what they will do with me or where they will put me if she leaves, but im hoping ill stay in the same area but just get a new trainer. it sucks though because then ill basically be training them too and teaching them about the area and all of our investigators.

holidays are pretty normal days for us missionaries. one of the recent converts we visited lit off one small firework after we were done meeting with her. haha. that was as good as our Fourth of July festivities got! but we found 3 investigators that day, so we were feeling blessed.

we found 4 new investigators this week! we are feeling so blessed because we didnt get to go out as much as we wanted to but we were so blessed when we did go out. one of them we found on the 4th of July. he was just out watering his lawn when we went over to talk with him. we brought up the plan of salvation and he said he had always wondered about what happens to us after we die. he said that was a question he had been trying to find an answer to for a long time. we are going over next saturday to meet with him! two others were also found on the fourth of july. melissa and zayah are mom and daughter. zayah is 10 and is really interested in learning about different religions. we gave them a book of mormon to read and have a meeting with them on wednesday. yahoo! :) of course we have our fair share of rejections. (mission life probs) but that is bound to happen. I am really trying hard to maintain a positive attitude and just enjoy my time out here. things really get hard sometimes but for the most part ive realized that if i just maintain a positive attitude and keep moving forward that i will be able to accomplish anything. i only get this mission experience once, so might as well make it a good one. :)

I can hardly believe that only one month has gone by. it seems like it has been a lot longer but it also has come so quick. wednesday will be my one month mark. Crazy, right? 1 month down, 17 more to go and i can't wait for what the lord has in store for me.

Yuba city is definitely full of some different people. i told my mom that this has definitely been a reality check. i am no longer in my utah bubble and didnt realize how much of a bubble i was in until i came here.  a lot of people here struggle with abuse...drug, alcohol, physical, mental, emotional, etc. every kind of abuse. most homes are low income or have no jobs. most are on welfare and medicaid. there are a lot of broken homes and we see a lot of really sad things. AND EVERYONE has dogs and cats.

yesterday we went in to a home of a less active and i could barely breathe. the smoke and cat smell was insane. i had never been in anything like that before. last night my eyes were bloodshot red and i was sneezing like crazy from allergies. whoosh that was a tough one, but we gotta see those people. they need us and they need the spirit in their homes.

we also saw another less active couple yesterday and got to read through two chapters of second nephi with them. they are pretty different and i guess last time sister grant was there, she asked them why they didnt come to church and she lifted up her shirt so you could see her belly and as she jiggled it around she said "im just too dang fat to go to church" ....hahahah. its so hard not to laugh in some of the situations we get in to. but these really are concerns of people and reasons they dont go to church. its pretty sad.

i would love to recieve pictures. you guys can send them through email or via snail mail. and i would like to request some CDs. if ever you are at deseret book and see some awesome gospel CDs send them over this way. we "rock out" to remade hymns all the time. its pretty great and pumps us up for the work. also, i left a couple of gift cards to subway and starbucks at home. if you find them will you send them out to me?

I am really enjoying my time out here and am so grateful for this opportunity. my testimony is growing so quickly and i love the people of yuba city already. i just want to help all of them. i really do. i know this is where i need to be and as hard as it is sometimes, it is so WORTH IT. I already see myself becoming a better version of myself. I am so humbled and really working on always constantly having a positive attitude. that is really the only way you can keep going with this work. Just keep moving forward. I am a lot more patient and loving. i already see the changes in me and know this is going to be a great 18 months. We see a lot of miracles and i feel so blessed to have the opportunity to see these things happening right before my eyes.

i love and miss you all like crazy!!

keep being awesome everybody! :)

love,

Sister Allen