Hey everybody!
Thanksgiving was wonderful! We only had two dinners and the elders had
five!! I don't even know how they rode their bikes because I could
barely do it after eating only two. We started the morning by doing
some service over at the church with our elders and the zone leaders.
They had us clean the bathrooms and chapel really well and then we all
went to Denny's for $2 pancakes. Our first dinner was with the Nash's.
Their daughter is serving a mission in Colorado and has been out on
her mission for three weeks now, she left the week I came. They are an
awesome family and really take care of the missionaries. We also go
over there every Sunday night for treats and a spiritual thought.
They've had that tradition going for 11 years now and they are a
really great family. We headed over to visit the Werners/Wilfleys
after for some pie and spent a while with them. Sister Werner is the
cutest and i love being with their family. Her three brothers are
these huge college football players and she has the cutest kids.
Dinner with the Castillos was next and they had the best dinner by
far. It was so good and I still want more. We showed them a Mormon
message about being thankful and had an awesome discussion with them
about being grateful. All the time now, as we are talking with people
I just zone out for a second and look around and realize how blessed I
have been the past 18 months to have shares such special experiences
with so many people. I just feel at such peace as I look around me and
can recognize the spirit so strongly. This has been an amazing time of
my life! The happiest by far.
I can't believe I haven't told you guys about Jenny yet. Jenny is a
returning member. She has four kids and her oldest two kids just got
baptized in August. She has dreads, tattoos, is all natural and
organic, and seriously the coolest person alive. I seriously love
their family. We go over to Jenny's a few times a week and help her
out around the house because she's basically a single mom right now
while her husband is going to school down south to be a nurse. Jenny
called us late Wednesday night and told us that her and Robert were
going to be legally married by the bishop and she wanted us to be
there! They had a ceremony about eight years ago, but there were never
any legal documents signed and Bishop told her that this is something
she would have to do before she went to the temple! So that night us,
her four kids, the bishop, Roberts and her met in the relief society
room and they were legally married! Jenny is really trying to get to
the temple and we were so pumped when we heard that she is one step
closer.
Coral is a less active returning member who we have started to work
with more. She is really trying to get back in to church and knows
this is where she needs to be. She's been a member for two years now,
but a lot of her extended family are members. Coral has made
incredible progress this week. Sister spears said she never used to be
as open as she is now. Even in the few times I've met with coral, I
feel like she has such a good heart and just wants to do well. She was
able to meet with bishop this week and discuss her progress and her
biggest problem is having too much time on her hands. She has no job,
no car, no family real close and no internet. So she has a lot of
spare time to do things she probably shouldn't be and knows she
shouldn't be doing. Bishop invited her to think about having more
contact with us and ever since then, we have had some really good
lessons over at corals. As I was studying on Wednesday morning, I was
praying about coral and what we could do to help her and I really felt
strongly like introducing her to family history and indexing would be
a good use of her time. A good wholesome thing to fill her time with.
She wasn't too thrilled with the idea at first, but we are hoping that
as she begins to do it, she can learn to love it and feel the spirit
as she does. She really loves to serve, so even though she doesn't
have much, she offered to feed us lunch twice last week. The whole
time we were there for lunch I just kept thinking to myself, "this is
exactly what she needed. A way to focus on other people." It's so cool
to see first hand mosiah 2:17 come to pass, "when ye are in the
service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God.
Sister Simmons is a returning member as well. Her daughter Kaiya just
got baptized a few months ago and that had really been a major turning
point for their family! Sis Simmons has been a member her whole life,
but has been in and out of the church for years. She has been working
so hard to get her life on track and was able to receive her
patriarchal blessing yesterday morning! It was such an amazing
blessing for her and she said that the patriarch was so spot on, it
was crazy. It's so cool to see all of these people really trying to
work hard to come back to what they know is true and right.
Wednesday afternoon, after our district meeting, we rode our bikes
over to this little Mexican restaurant called La Fiesta. Wendy
Metrogen, one of my recent converts from Loomis, met us over there and
we had lunch with her! It's been almost a year since I've seen her and
was so good to see her and to just start where we left off. She is
really working hard to keep going to church and still receives weekly
visits from the sisters. I was so happy to hear they she was doing so
well. She's really looking forward to meeting mom and dad when they
come out here!
This Saturday we have a baptism for Emma. Her grandparents are in our
Ward and we received permission to teach and baptize her in our Ward
because her dad goes to school and works full time. She's 12 years old
and is pretty excited about being baptized. She has a very similar
story as I do with our parents divorces being similar and her being
raised by her dad. I felt a real connection with her right as I met
her and I feel like I know a lot of what she is going through. We have
been reviewing the lessons with her the past few weeks so that she
feels ready and hopefully we can pull everything together by Saturday.
The Castillos are this awesome recent convert family who was baptized
a year ago in December. The elders were riding past their house one
day and started talking with them and they were so prepared! Their
whole family was baptized. Wife, husband, and Junior their 15 year old
son. The Castillos are seriously amazing people! They are going to the
temple next weekend to receive their own endowments and be sealed.
It's going to be such a special day for them!
Friday morning a less active woman in the Ward, Karen, invited us over
to help decorate her Christmas tree! It was so fun and I love that
members involve is in their Christmas traditions. Karens conversion is
all thanks to Donny Osmond. There are so many women who are in love
with Donny who joined the church. She has every single one of his CDs
and has met him at a lot of his So Cal concerts. So of course, we
decorated the tree while listening to The Osmonds Christmas cd.
Two move outs, two move ins. I told you that Our investigator Taylor
had moved out, but one of our recent convert families the sisters used
to work with moved out as well. So we have been struggling to find new
investigators. But it was amazing to see this past week, as two people
in our teaching pool moved out, two women moved in. The first is Lisa.
She just moved here from a different Ward and is an investigator. She
worked out of Orem for a phone book/advertising company for a really
long time before she got lung cancer and would be in Orem two months
out of the year. She would go to our church every Sunday and would
help out with any of the service projects they had going on. She took
the lessons while she lived back in Oregon, but never joined the
church. She really just likes to church hop and says she hasn't found
one that fits yet, so hopefully this time around something will click.
She is basically a member though because she will come to church and
shares the gospel with her friends. One of her Russian friends from
Sacramento is going to come to church with her because he's really
interested, so hopefully something will come of this. The other move
in is a lady named Hannah. Hannah just moved here from Boise and is
also not a member, but might as well be. She met with the missionaries
in Boise and showed up at our Ward Sunday because she had just moved
in. She lives in a trailer on the back of her truck and so she is
never in one place for very long, but we are hoping that she shows up
at church again next week so that we can teach her.
I hope you all have heard of the new Christmas video called "He is the
Gift" that the church just released. It is absolutely amazing and I
can't get enough of it! We have been sharing it with the members of
our Ward and inviting them to prayerfully think of someone who they
can share it with. Every time I watch it I have one of those moments
like what I was talking about the beginning, where I kind of zone out,
look around me, and everything for that moment just seems so peaceful
and perfect. Like I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. The church is
really pushing this video and I would invite all of you to share it!
It's a very simple message that anyone of any faith would enjoy. A
good reminder to us that Christ is the gift and we should make a
commitment to discover more of his life, embrace his example, and
share the gift of our knowledge of him with everyone around us.
I hope you all have a wonderful week! This could really be the last
week to send me letters, so send them while you can. :) I love you
all! Read, pray, be active, forgive, and remember the Savior in all
you do.
Xoxo,
Sister Allen
Thanksgiving was wonderful! We only had two dinners and the elders had
five!! I don't even know how they rode their bikes because I could
barely do it after eating only two. We started the morning by doing
some service over at the church with our elders and the zone leaders.
They had us clean the bathrooms and chapel really well and then we all
went to Denny's for $2 pancakes. Our first dinner was with the Nash's.
Their daughter is serving a mission in Colorado and has been out on
her mission for three weeks now, she left the week I came. They are an
awesome family and really take care of the missionaries. We also go
over there every Sunday night for treats and a spiritual thought.
They've had that tradition going for 11 years now and they are a
really great family. We headed over to visit the Werners/Wilfleys
after for some pie and spent a while with them. Sister Werner is the
cutest and i love being with their family. Her three brothers are
these huge college football players and she has the cutest kids.
Dinner with the Castillos was next and they had the best dinner by
far. It was so good and I still want more. We showed them a Mormon
message about being thankful and had an awesome discussion with them
about being grateful. All the time now, as we are talking with people
I just zone out for a second and look around and realize how blessed I
have been the past 18 months to have shares such special experiences
with so many people. I just feel at such peace as I look around me and
can recognize the spirit so strongly. This has been an amazing time of
my life! The happiest by far.
I can't believe I haven't told you guys about Jenny yet. Jenny is a
returning member. She has four kids and her oldest two kids just got
baptized in August. She has dreads, tattoos, is all natural and
organic, and seriously the coolest person alive. I seriously love
their family. We go over to Jenny's a few times a week and help her
out around the house because she's basically a single mom right now
while her husband is going to school down south to be a nurse. Jenny
called us late Wednesday night and told us that her and Robert were
going to be legally married by the bishop and she wanted us to be
there! They had a ceremony about eight years ago, but there were never
any legal documents signed and Bishop told her that this is something
she would have to do before she went to the temple! So that night us,
her four kids, the bishop, Roberts and her met in the relief society
room and they were legally married! Jenny is really trying to get to
the temple and we were so pumped when we heard that she is one step
closer.
Coral is a less active returning member who we have started to work
with more. She is really trying to get back in to church and knows
this is where she needs to be. She's been a member for two years now,
but a lot of her extended family are members. Coral has made
incredible progress this week. Sister spears said she never used to be
as open as she is now. Even in the few times I've met with coral, I
feel like she has such a good heart and just wants to do well. She was
able to meet with bishop this week and discuss her progress and her
biggest problem is having too much time on her hands. She has no job,
no car, no family real close and no internet. So she has a lot of
spare time to do things she probably shouldn't be and knows she
shouldn't be doing. Bishop invited her to think about having more
contact with us and ever since then, we have had some really good
lessons over at corals. As I was studying on Wednesday morning, I was
praying about coral and what we could do to help her and I really felt
strongly like introducing her to family history and indexing would be
a good use of her time. A good wholesome thing to fill her time with.
She wasn't too thrilled with the idea at first, but we are hoping that
as she begins to do it, she can learn to love it and feel the spirit
as she does. She really loves to serve, so even though she doesn't
have much, she offered to feed us lunch twice last week. The whole
time we were there for lunch I just kept thinking to myself, "this is
exactly what she needed. A way to focus on other people." It's so cool
to see first hand mosiah 2:17 come to pass, "when ye are in the
service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God.
Sister Simmons is a returning member as well. Her daughter Kaiya just
got baptized a few months ago and that had really been a major turning
point for their family! Sis Simmons has been a member her whole life,
but has been in and out of the church for years. She has been working
so hard to get her life on track and was able to receive her
patriarchal blessing yesterday morning! It was such an amazing
blessing for her and she said that the patriarch was so spot on, it
was crazy. It's so cool to see all of these people really trying to
work hard to come back to what they know is true and right.
Wednesday afternoon, after our district meeting, we rode our bikes
over to this little Mexican restaurant called La Fiesta. Wendy
Metrogen, one of my recent converts from Loomis, met us over there and
we had lunch with her! It's been almost a year since I've seen her and
was so good to see her and to just start where we left off. She is
really working hard to keep going to church and still receives weekly
visits from the sisters. I was so happy to hear they she was doing so
well. She's really looking forward to meeting mom and dad when they
come out here!
This Saturday we have a baptism for Emma. Her grandparents are in our
Ward and we received permission to teach and baptize her in our Ward
because her dad goes to school and works full time. She's 12 years old
and is pretty excited about being baptized. She has a very similar
story as I do with our parents divorces being similar and her being
raised by her dad. I felt a real connection with her right as I met
her and I feel like I know a lot of what she is going through. We have
been reviewing the lessons with her the past few weeks so that she
feels ready and hopefully we can pull everything together by Saturday.
The Castillos are this awesome recent convert family who was baptized
a year ago in December. The elders were riding past their house one
day and started talking with them and they were so prepared! Their
whole family was baptized. Wife, husband, and Junior their 15 year old
son. The Castillos are seriously amazing people! They are going to the
temple next weekend to receive their own endowments and be sealed.
It's going to be such a special day for them!
Friday morning a less active woman in the Ward, Karen, invited us over
to help decorate her Christmas tree! It was so fun and I love that
members involve is in their Christmas traditions. Karens conversion is
all thanks to Donny Osmond. There are so many women who are in love
with Donny who joined the church. She has every single one of his CDs
and has met him at a lot of his So Cal concerts. So of course, we
decorated the tree while listening to The Osmonds Christmas cd.
Two move outs, two move ins. I told you that Our investigator Taylor
had moved out, but one of our recent convert families the sisters used
to work with moved out as well. So we have been struggling to find new
investigators. But it was amazing to see this past week, as two people
in our teaching pool moved out, two women moved in. The first is Lisa.
She just moved here from a different Ward and is an investigator. She
worked out of Orem for a phone book/advertising company for a really
long time before she got lung cancer and would be in Orem two months
out of the year. She would go to our church every Sunday and would
help out with any of the service projects they had going on. She took
the lessons while she lived back in Oregon, but never joined the
church. She really just likes to church hop and says she hasn't found
one that fits yet, so hopefully this time around something will click.
She is basically a member though because she will come to church and
shares the gospel with her friends. One of her Russian friends from
Sacramento is going to come to church with her because he's really
interested, so hopefully something will come of this. The other move
in is a lady named Hannah. Hannah just moved here from Boise and is
also not a member, but might as well be. She met with the missionaries
in Boise and showed up at our Ward Sunday because she had just moved
in. She lives in a trailer on the back of her truck and so she is
never in one place for very long, but we are hoping that she shows up
at church again next week so that we can teach her.
I hope you all have heard of the new Christmas video called "He is the
Gift" that the church just released. It is absolutely amazing and I
can't get enough of it! We have been sharing it with the members of
our Ward and inviting them to prayerfully think of someone who they
can share it with. Every time I watch it I have one of those moments
like what I was talking about the beginning, where I kind of zone out,
look around me, and everything for that moment just seems so peaceful
and perfect. Like I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. The church is
really pushing this video and I would invite all of you to share it!
It's a very simple message that anyone of any faith would enjoy. A
good reminder to us that Christ is the gift and we should make a
commitment to discover more of his life, embrace his example, and
share the gift of our knowledge of him with everyone around us.
I hope you all have a wonderful week! This could really be the last
week to send me letters, so send them while you can. :) I love you
all! Read, pray, be active, forgive, and remember the Savior in all
you do.
Xoxo,
Sister Allen
