Hello everyone!

I have learned two amazing lessons this week. 1.Two return missionaries is better than one and 2. when you pray for service opportunities, be specific :)

Last week I was feeling like we should start praying for opportunities where we could serve people in our community. On Thursday we definitely got an answer to this prayer and we got a little more than we bargained for. Haha. Thursday morning we got a call from one of our investigators. She had been put in jail on Monday for possession of meth (yeah, crazy) and her daughter was now in foster care. She didnt have a place to stay and we were searching for a member or someone who would take her in for the night. (Heavenly Father, who would want a meth user to stay with them in their house?!) We finally had a prompting to call Bro. Myers who specializes with these kinds of situations. He took her over to a hotel and paid for one nights stay. It was an amazing blessing. We have decided to discontinue teaching her because it is unsafe and this situation is not one where we can help her anymore then we already have. Jail, meth, foster care, and homeless...woosh, that was a little more service than we intended. We were able to help her though and thats what matters. :) While all of this was going on, we were running around town to different lessons and dropping off cupcakes for the less actives who we teach. Our morning was full of zone meetings and so all of this craziness happened in about four hours or less. We have learned to be more specific when we are asking Heavenly Father for opportunities. Hopefully next time around, the service won't include illegal drugs and legal issues...haha.

The second thing I have learned this week is the fact that two is really better than one. We have been having each lesson with Brad (investigator getting baptized on the 28th) in a members home. On Saturday, we went over to the Tenney's home for dinner and a lesson with Brad. Sis. and Bro. Tenney are both return missionaries and I can not express in words how different their home is compared to the other ones with only one return missionary in the home. Of course other homes are still wonderful, but you can just see and feel a difference in homes like the Tenney's. They build each other up and they are not only strong together as a couple, but are also strong independent people as well. The children always have strong testimonies and I just feel like the family unit runs so much smoother this way. It is an amazing thing now that so many sisters are out here on their missions. This is going to strengthen every single one of their future families and crete such a good environment. Gordon B. Hinckley talked about this exact thing one time saying something like, "woman of the church go out to serve missions because they have a desire to strengthen their future home and they are called to raise the priesthood army of God in these last days." What an amazing blessing that will come from missionary service!

I may have said this before, but everyone here smokes! Sister Mac and I have decided that smoking is one of the biggest tactics Satan uses to attack people out here. Smoking is one of the biggest problems our investigators deal with. I always offer to take people's cigarettes for them and I have yet to have someone hand them over to me. One day! It is extremely hard for them to stop, but must do so in order to be baptized. Sister Mac and I talk about this all the time, why would someone desire to start inhaling that nasty stuff? Its really gross.

On Friday, we had another wedding! Ashley is a less active member who is returning to the church and Denise is not a member. On Thursday we stopped by to see them to help them with any last minute wedding plans. Denise has come to church for the last two weeks and has really enjoyed it. We were planning on committing her to baptism on Saturday at the lesson we had planned with her, but she basically invited herself to be baptized. We were standing outside our car and she started talking about the feeling she gets at church and how its different than any other church she had been to. Then she just flat out told us, "I want to be baptized. That's my goal." There's another one. We are up to 6 baptisms in the next two months!! Denise has committed to be baptized on the 5th of October. She struggles with smoking which would be the only thing that would hold her back, but she wants it so bad!

The three kids who we have been working with changed their baptism date to the 12th of October. Its awesome because their great grandpa gets to come down here and baptize them. I think this will really strengthen their family and help their mom and grandparents get back to church. We have been going over there every other day of the week to read the Book of Mormon with them. We have also started to sing a couple of the primary songs with them. It is amazing the spirit that singing these songs has brought in to their home. Their mom has even joined in on each one and you can tell she really feels the spirit. It is amazing seeing Heavenly Father work through us to help this family become unified in the gospel. They have been through a lot and the happiness this gospel brings is exactly what they need.

I apologize that this letter is all over the place. This past week has been crazy and I have a hard time putting all of these stories in to words that make sense. I hope everyone is doing well and I know that the Lord is watching over all of us. I am so grateful that he answers our prayers in ways that we least expect it. He wants us to learn and grow. I know that the book of mormon is true. I know that missionary work can change lives and truly is the work of salvation.

I love you all and miss everyone like crazy.

Until next week,
Sister Allen

ps. my companion's blog is super awesome and she tells a lot of stuff in her emails too. the link to her blog is macfunfam.blogspot.com