busy busy

Hey everyone! This week was incredibly busy and I have been signing up for classes, so i'm sorry this will be a short email. 

There's this woman that we work with named Elizabeth, she was baptized seven years ago into the shasta lake Ward. Soon after her family was baptized, she found out that her husband had been hurting her kids...long story short, the church sided with him and not her, which resulted in her losing custody of her kids. She never went back to church, but her testimony is incredible. About six months ago, the sisters were contacting people on her street and sister Lyman felt prompted to talk to Elizabeth. They found out she was a member and we have been going to visit ever since. Elizabeth lived with her fiancé and is pregnant right now. We went over two weeks ago and literally twenty minutes before we went over there, her fiancé told her that he had been being unfaithful and just the day before she had found out that her pregnancy wasn't viable. The baby's heart wouldn't be able to function properly on its own once it was born. I asked her if she wanted a priesthood blessing and the elders came over with us on Wednesday to give her one. Elder Jones offered the most beautiful and heartfelt blessing I have ever heard. The spirit was so strong, peaceful, and sweet. Very few other times have I felt so engulfed and filled with the spirit. He talked a lot about using the atonement and understanding that everything happens for a reason. I just sat there on the couch listening and feeling so much love for Elizabeth. I had a thought run through my mind, during the blessing, where Elizabeth was back at the church four or five years from now and was teaching primary and relating her story to people who really needed it. She is seriously an incredibly strong person and is handling everything with such a good attitude. The whole experience helped me understand how real the atonement is and how important the priesthood is in our lives. 

The dinner fast went well this week. Every single night we had dinner with someone who was inactive or an investigator. Monday night we went over to the Mueller's and they invited their next door neighbors over. We have been trying to work with Brad and Lily for a while now and finally were able to invite them to read the Book of Mormon together. Brad grew up going to the church and his mom and stepdad were sealed in the temple, but he was never baptized. His 8 year old daughter has come to a few of the activities for primary and we are hoping that they will desire to come to church soon. Wednesday and Thursday we spent over at the Cramer's. Sister Cramer is incredible and a less active. Her two kids, Mike (15) and Moriah (13) are not members as well as her husband. They are the coolest, most down to earth family and we really are trying our best to introduce them to church. Thursday when we went over, Sister Cramer's brother and his family stopped over on their way to the Redwoods from St. George. They have two boys on missions right now and it was awesome to be able to spend some time with them. All in all, we had a successful week.

Friday we spent the entire day in Palo Cedro for our zone "blitz". All 24 missionaries in the Anderson stake covered 12 different areas in the Palo Cedro ward. We visited inactive members, active members, and investigators so that the Elders in that ward could have more success. The Lord was definitely watching out for Sister Comstock and I that day because we had to turn right and left off onto dirt roads of a two way highway and there were a couple close calls. 

I honestly can't even think about what happened this past week! My mind is such a blur and it doesn't help that I have bad allergies right now (i've been taking lots of claritin). All I know is that things are going great here in Anderson. We have been incredibly busy. Literally every hour of our day we have a lesson. We just really need more support from our ward so that the people we work with can feel loved, included, and want to be at church. We have so many people showing up to church each week and so many people having that desire to meet with us. My heart is so full with gratitude that the Lord has allowed us to have so many people to work with. 

I studied Jorg Kleginbat's talk from conference in depth this week for personal study and I would invite all of you to look over it. I made a list of things that I am going to work on to continue feeling comfortable approaching God's throne with confidence. "Acknowledge and face your weaknesses, but don't be immobilized by them." 

I love you guys! Thanks for everything! 

xoxox,

Sister Allen

 sister comstock and I learned how to make bread this week and it resulted in a flour fight...