Twenty Fourteen

Hello again! This week flew by and I'm pretty sure I say that every
week...but it's true.

President Weston has challenged each companionship to talk to at least
20 people each day. Out here in Loomis, where there aren't many people
just out walking around on country roads, makes it a little tough. We
haven't been  able to reach this goal yet and so on Saturday we were
determined to get at least ten. We looked up some different parks in
the area and luckily it was in the high 60s (welcome to California),
so people were out and about. We were really nervous about the whole
thing and finally got the courage to get out of the car. As we were
walking, this girl started waving at me saying "Hi Taylor!!" I looked
around and sure enough, I was the only person around. Seriously heaven
sent, because it gave us a reason to walk over and talk to them. We
spent about 40 minutes getting to know them, asking them if they had
talked with missionaries before, etc. one of the girls actually had
attended church in our ward before and had even taken the missionary
discussions. Most of her friends were in our ward before going off to
BYU and so she knew exactly who we were. We were able to get their
names and we have them our Facebook info. And guess what? they
actually added us on FB! We are hoping to start there and warming them
up to the idea of meeting with them. Sister Byrne and I both agreed
that these two girls definitely would benefit from our message. It
would chance their life around and help them become more successful
and happy. Such a miracle. We talked to a couple more people that day
and although it was nerve racking at first, we just got it over with
and realized the worst thing they can do is say No, which is not that
bad.

New Year's Eve we had to be in by 6pm to be safe. President wanted us
off the roads at night for safety reasons. I actually was on exchanges
with Sis Benally that night and so I was in Auburn. We stayed in and
updated the area book for a couple hour and I got to wear a Happy New
Year hat while doing it, so that made things a little better. We were
in bed by 10 (party animals, I know) and that's about as festive as we
got. I seriously can't believe its a new year! Time just flies by and
I'm almost hitting my 7 month mark. Seriously crazy.

Tomorrow we are going back to James' house. He is the man who we found
tracting, a while back. He is of the Bahai faith and believes that
Christ has already come. He challenged me last time to read in Matthew
24 before the next time we met. So this morning I started studying
about the second coming and now I'm hooked. It was hard to even peel
myself away from my studies this morning, because I was so interested.
Here's a bit of what I learned based on my readings on Matthew 24.

Some of the signs of the second coming are false prophets, wars,
famine, pestilence, earthquakes, martyrdom, persecution, rejection of
Christ's followers, hatred, betrayal, easily offended, iniquity and no
love, false Christ's and false prophets who deceive the elect, no
light from the stars, sun or moon. Pretty scary stuff. Yet, as I was
reading this I did not feel nervous about what is to come. I feel
grateful that God has given us ways to be prepared for the coming of
Christ. Verse 46 reads, "Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when
he cometh shall find so doing." Basically if we are doing what they
have asked of us, then we will be blessed. It clicked in my mind, as
to why the apostles and prophets so greatly encourage us to read the
scriptures, pray, attend church, etc. It's all for our good. So we can
be those blessed servants who are showing our service to Christ by
doing things he has asked of us. Wouldn't you rather be part of that
elect people where Christ can be in your midst as you do those things
pleasing unto him? I also loved verse 43, that describes Christ coming
as a thief in the night. I finally understood the analogy. Verse 43
says, "But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in
what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not
have suffered his house to be broken up." If you knew that someone
would be coming to break into your house tonight, what would you do?
Personally I would prepare by locking up all the windows and doors,
calling the police, etc. Christ is that thief that we know is
returning, don't we want to prepare for his coming? It's amazing how
people in the world would prepare better for a burglary, then they
would for the coming of our Savior. The faithful will look for the
signs. "If ye are prepared, ye shall not fear" I know that if we
strengthen our faith, know the signs to look for, and do his will,
that we will be the blessed people. We can do it!

The 2014 theme for the young men and young women is Moroni 10:32,
"yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves
of all ungodliness." The youth videos that they have been putting out
with this new theme are really great. I included he link to my
favorite one below. I think everyone should watch it. Youth or not.
Enjoy!

https://www.lds.org/youth/video/come-unto-christ-2014-theme-song?lang=eng

I hope you all are well. Enjoy your week and this picture of me
wishing you all a Happy New Year.

Love,

Sister allen

Sent from my iPad