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

An email from Sister Allen...

I know it's true!
 

i think heavenly father dedicated this week to "Help Sister Allen's Testimony Grow Week"! i had so many amazing lessons taught to me this past week and I know that Heavenly Father was answering  my prayers.
 

I have been praying for a stronger testimony of the Book of Mormon. Because I have never fully read the Book of Mormon before coming out here, I always just assumed it was true, but I really desired to know for myself. For the first couple of weeks out here on the mission I wouldn't testify or ask someone to pray about the Book of Mormon, because I didn't want to be a hypocrite. I would allow my companions to do that part and this week, I feel SO strongly that I KNOW its true! I know that the Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ. On Wednesday night is when I truly got my answer. We were over at the Myers home and started the first New Member lesson with Vaughn. The members are supposed to teach the new member lessons after baptism and we are just supposed to be there at the first couple of lessons for support. Bro Myers taught the in-depth, mind blowing version of the Restoration. Seriously, i sat there the whole entire lesson with my jaw dropped. I wanted to share some of the things that I learned from him about the evidences of the Book of Mormon.

1. Ezekiel 37: 15-17 talks about the Stick of Judah and Stick of Joseph. I have always known about the Stick of Judah representing the Holy Bible and how the Stick of Joseph represents the Book of Mormon...but I never knew where that evidence was supported. Bro Myers showed us that in 1 Nephi 5:14 says, "And it came to pass that my father, Lehi, also found upon the ^aplates of brass a ^bgenealogy of his ^cfathers; wherefore he knew that he was a descendant of ^dJoseph; yea, even that Joseph who was the son of ^eJacob, who was ^fsold into Egypt, and who was ^gpreserved by the hand of the Lord, that he might preserve his father, Jacob, and all his household from perishing with famine." Right in this scripture it says that Lehi and his family were descendants of Joseph of Egypt. and we see this again in 1 Nephi 6:2 "For it sufficeth me to say that we are descendants of ^aJoseph." That is why the Book of Mormon is known to be the Stick of Joseph. All of those who prophesied or wrote in the Book of Mormon were descendants of Joseph of Egypt.

2. In Daniel 2:44, it talks about Nebuchadnezzar's dream and prophecies he saw.  "44 And in the ^adays of these ^bkings shall the God of heaven ^cset up a ^dkingdom, which shall never be ^edestroyed: and the ^fkingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall ^gbreak in pieces and ^hconsume all these ⁱkingdoms, and it shall stand for ever." This scripture prophesies of the destruction of the kingdoms and that one day God will set up His kingdom and it shall never be destroyed. We often refer to the church as the kingdom of God on the earth today, which is exactly what it is. On April 6, 1830 the church was completely and legally restored to the earth. That same spring of 1830, the French kingdom fell. It was the first kingdom to fall and since that time 8 of the 10 reigning kingdoms have fallen. That means that there are only 2 more kingdoms or hierarchy's that need to fall before the Second Coming. We are closer than we think and the prophesy of the Resoration of "God's Kingdom" has been fulfilled.

3. A lot of people say that the Book of Mormon is written by men. What they dont understand is that the Book of Mormon was written the same way that the Bible was, by revelation through prophets. In Revelations 22: 18 it says, "For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall ^aadd unto these things, God shall add unto him the ^bplagues that are written in this book:" People use this scripture against us all the time to tell us that we have false writings and that the Book of Mormon cant be a word of God. The thing that they don't know is that it also says this similar thing in the Old Testament, which would mean that they could claim the New Testament false as well.

Anyways, these are 3 of the things that Bro Myers taught to us and as I was sitting there going over these things, I thought to myself, "Lexis, you've always known that the Book of Mormon is true." I realized that I really have always known that the Book of Mormon is the word of god, but I just needed someone to remind me of that. I finally got the answer that I have been praying for and I know without a doubt that the Book of Mormon is TRUE!!

Sister Bundy sent me a copy of the August Ensign last week and I read the whole entire thing, cover to cover. It was exactly what I needed to hear/learn. It had so many amazing articles about receiving true revelation and I would suggest all of you read it, if you haven't yet. If you dont have that much time, then at least make it a priority to read the article titled, "Opening Our Heart's to Revelation". Such a good one!

I have been slowly making my way through the Book of Mormon and am in Mosiah. Chapters 1-5, when King Benjamin is speaking to the people before he steps down from King, are amazing! Read them over again if its been a while. Mosiah 5: 7-9 are my ultimate favorite scriptures. They read:
 
7 And now, because of the covenant which ye have made ye shall be called the ^achildren of Christ, his sons, and his daughters; for behold, this day he hath spiritually begotten you; for ye say that your hearts are ^bchanged through faith on his name; therefore, ye are ^cborn of him and have become his ^dsons and his daughters.
 
8 And under this head ye are made ^afree, and there is ^bno other head whereby ye can be made free. There is no other ^cname given whereby salvation cometh; therefore, I would that ye should ^dtake upon you the name of Christ, all you that have entered into the covenant with God that ye should be obedient unto the end of your lives.
 
9 And it shall come to pass that whosoever doeth this shall be found at the right hand of God, for he shall know the name by which he is called; for he shall be called by the name of Christ.

When we are baptized, we literally take upon ourselves the name of Christ. I put in the margin of my scriptures, "Lexis Christ". It helps me remember that we are all a representative of Him and we have promised that when we made the covenants at baptism.

We have started riding bikes on some days throughout the week to save on gas and car miles. Not going to lie, it was super awkward at first. Two girls in skirts on bikes and we are wobbling the whole way because our bikes are unbalanced from our bag FULL of books of mormon. Uhh yeah. Haha. We decided to bike twice last week. Once on Thursday and again on Saturday! I look completely ridiculous in a helmet, by the way. Safety first though, right? Its actually really enjoyable on bikes now that the weather has cooled down and we are seen by everyone. You dont hear anyone say, "Oh yeah, we saw those missionaries in that car the other day..." Its always the missionaries on bikes that people see. Plus, we can talk and wave at every single person we pass. Gives us lots more opportunity to share the gospel.

We have five baptisms coming up at the end of September. Sista Mac and I have started teaching the Durfey/Shore kids. Kendra, Klayton, and Katie are all planning on getting baptized together on September 28th. These kids are AMAZING! Kendra gives THE best prayers and has such strong faith. She has been waiting for a long time to be baptized and she wants it so bad. We met with them almost every day last week and are going through the Book of Mormon. We have been using the Childrens picture Book of Mormon and it has been working very well. We even took them all on a bike ride to the park and read the Book of Mormon there together. They are definitely prepared and we can't wait to see them all in white together. :) Our other investigator, Brad, the guy from the Air Force, is finally returning home from his month long vacation on Wednesday. He is still set on the 28th for his baptism and we cant wait for him to be back so we can actually have lessons with him. He is still a little unsure on some things, but it has been hard to teach him anything because our only contact with him has been via text message. Elizabeth is the other person with a baptismal date. We were at her house and knew that we needed to commit her to a specific date. She had already committed her to baptism, but needed a specific date. Sister MacDonald picked the perfect time to ask her to be baptized, but she committed her to the 28th too! HAHA. So, I guess now we have 5 baptisms on the 28th of September. It's just going to be one big spiritual party in the font that day! We can't wait! :)

I am starting to fall in love with the California sunsets. They are unreal EVERY single night. I wish you all could see. :)

One last thought, the lesson in Relief Society was on the Priesthood. We are so blessed to have the priesthood in our lives. It is an amazing power and blessing from God. As woman, we need to be constantly striving to support and uplift the priesthood holders around us. We should always help them remain worthy of that honor. There is a Mormon Message video here: http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=1370500727001that you should all take a chance to watch. It shows the amazing responsibility that comes when a young 12 year old is given the blessing of the Aaronic Priesthood. "Be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord." Remain always worthy of the priesthood, both men and women.

I am so blessed to see the Lord working through other people to answer my prayers. I know he is there watching out for every single one of us and I know he loves each of us individually. He wants to bless us and if we humble ourselves before him, he will pour out the blessings of heaven upon us and make us strong.

I love you all!

Love,

Sister Allen

helllllooo everybody,

 

i seriously cant even believe that its already september! 

 

We were watching the Drive Safely videos this week (which are hilarious/super cheesy at the same time) and Brother Messick from our old ward is the main "police man" in the episodes. It was hilarious! All of them were filmed in Orem at the Harmons on 800 north. So funny. 

 

I heard the Aggies lost to the Utes last Thursday. BUMMER. The bishop is a huge BYU fan and obsessed with twitter and so he texted us and told us the update of the game. The stake high council leader from our ward is a huge Utes fan and he was texting us all about it too and rubbing it in our face that we lost. haha. it was pretty hilarious and i definitely miss the football games, but im going to enjoy them that much more in 15 months. :)

 

I attended my first zone conference on Thursday and President Weston had some big news for us! We are all going to be starting to do missionary work via Facebook. We are one of 12 out of the 405 missions who are testing Facebook. One hour a day is going to be dedicated to finding/teaching on Facebook. We can literally teach someone a full lesson over Facebook chat and can even add a member in to the chat so that a member will be participating. Crazy, right? We will be using our Facebooks that we had before the mission and have to spend a couple hours cleaning them all up so that they are missionary appropriate. All of our pictures and past things will be hidden until we get back from our mission. All of you are going to be seeing me post random spiritual thoughts and everything, but you just wont be able to talk to me. Haha...sorry. I wont be able to comment or respond back to any of you if you send me a message, but you will still be able to see my page and i will be able to see all of yours. President told us that we will have ipads available to us within the next couple of months. That is going to change the way we teach. We can now use videos and conference talks, etc. all at our fingertips. It is going to be amazing! The work is hastening forward and we need to have every resource we can to help us. 

 

After zone conference, we said a prayer as to decide where we should go for the short time we had before dinner. Sister MacDonald said the prayer and after we both said what we were feeling would be a good area. She said she was thinking about this man named Cory and the Durfey family, who both live on the same street. I thought of Sister Holland and the words "red door" kept popping in to my head. Well Sister Holland, Cory, and the Durfeys all lived in a similar area and so we decided to go there. We parked the car and looked around and realized the color of Cory's door. Red. A red door! We went up there and knocked and sadly he wasnt home. We were thinking that maybe this "red door prompting" may have not been a real prompting, until we noticed that about half of the doors on this street were RED! As we continued to knock on the red doors, we didnt get much success. We finally made it down to the Durfeys home (who dont have a red door, might i add) and knocked. A little back story on the Durfeys first. Sister Durfey is grandma. She really hasnt liked missionaries in the past because they have been too pushy, she is a less active and won't come to church because its too early. She has said in the past that she will start coming to the 1 o clock church when it is more convenient...yeah, right. Sis Durfey's daughter is Jenny. Jenny has 4 kids. Kendra, Juliet, Clayton, and im drawing a blank on the last girls name. Anyways, Kendra is 13, she is best friends with the Myers daughter and is always over at the Myers home when we are doing Vaughn's (the man who just got baptized) lessons with him. She has talked about being baptized before and was scared to ask her mom and grandma about it. Anyways, hopefully you are following along with all of that. Soooo, we knock on the door (note, this is probably the fourth time in the past couple of weeks we have tried to see them) and Kendra answers! She gave us big hugs and introduced us to the rest of her family. The four kids, Jenny (mom), and Grandma all came outside and talked with us for a while. Kendra told us that she had been talking to her family all about the missionaries and then she stops and turns to her grandma and asks, "Grandma, when can i be baptized?" eeeek...kinda scary. But, grandma durfey turns to her and says, "whenever you want, you just have to ask these nice missionaries when they can come over and teach you all the lessons." Long story short, we are going over tonight to teach them the first lesson! Not only are we going to teach Kendra, but we are also going to be teaching her three younger siblings as well. They are 11, 9, and the youngest daughter turns 8 this month! PERFECTION! Thats 3 convert baptisms and a whole lot of awesome! The mom, Jenny, who is a less active, is going to be sitting in on the lessons as well. We are hoping to reactivate her, so she can be that support from her family. She really needs this right now because she just got out of a seriously abusive relationship. It's really sad, but things are looking up for them and they need the atonement and the truth more than ever.

 

We had our first baptism on Friday! YAY! It went amazing and it was such a great night. I will say that we are happy that it is over though. Its a lot of stress trying to put on a baptism. For some reason, they put Sister MacDonald and I in charge of filling up the font. No one told us how and so we had to figure it out on our own. We finally got it figured out and they had told us that it would take 2 hours to fill up and it seemed to be filling up fast...so there must have been something wrong. Well, we filled the font up over halfway with freezing cold water...I literally had to hike my dress up, crawl in the font, and pull the plug to let the cold water drain out. We drained it about halfway and then figured out how to make it warm...it was an adventure, thats for sure. After we finished filling up the font, we raced over to the Millers for dinner, grabbed a plate of food, and raced back over to the stake center. Im sure anyone who looked at us as we were driving over thought we were crazy. We had barbecue all over our faces from the ribs and potato chips flying across the car as we raced back to the stake center to make it in time for the baptism. Im sure you can imagine. Anyways, the baptism went amazing. Vaughn came up out of the water and let out a peaceful "ahh". He feels wonderful and I was completely overcome by the spirit as he was confirmed yesterday. Bro Myers who confirmed him talked about how Vaughn and his wife would go to the temple one day and be sealed together forever. I got the chills and can not wait for that day. They are literally counting down the days until they can be sealed in the temple. 

 

I saw someone almost choke to death this week. Yeah, that was an experience. We were all sitting around the table enjoying dinner and all of a sudden one of the guys started choking on a green bean! I didnt know what to do and just sat there trying to be calm as the people tried to give him the Heimlich. That was the first time i had seen it done in person and I hope my jaw wasnt dropped to the floor the entire time. I thought it would be no good to have three people trying to help him, so i stayed put and watched this mans face turn purple as they tried to figure out the correct way to do the Heimlich. Craziness. Luckily, it finally popped out and wow, was i grateful that that was over. Choking is scary! Chew your food. Amen.

3 Nephi 20: 8-9

 8 And he said unto them: He that eateth this bread eateth of ^amy body to his soul; and he that drinketh of this wine drinketh of my blood to his soul; and his soul shall never hunger nor thirst, but shall be filled.

9 Now, when the multitude had all eaten and drunk, behold, they were filled with the Spirit; and they did cry out with one voice, and gave glory to Jesus, whom they both saw and heard.

Here is Christ in the Americas blessing and passing the sacrament. These scriptures are an amazing reminder of the importance of partaking of the sacrament each week. Think about why and what it means to take the sacrament. There are amazing promises for us in the blessing of the bread and the water. We are filled with the spirit when we partake and that is a blessing you can not find anywhere else. Always be worthy of the sacrament and don't just make it a habit or routine when you partake of it. Think about if Christ was there with you and he was the one giving you the sacrament to partake. This is exactly why church attendance is so important. Of course it is wonderful that we always learn more about our Savior while we are there, but the most important thing we can do is take the sacrament worthily and with a full heart. 

 

I know this gospel is true with all of my heart. I am so grateful to be out here serving and know that this is exactly where the Lord needs me. I am here to do his will and bring these people eternal happiness with their families and father in heaven. 

 

I love you all! 

Thank you for every prayer, letter, words of support, etc. They mean everything to me.

Love,

 

Sister Allen

http://sisterlexisallen.blogspot.com/

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An email from Sister Allen...

Hello everyone!

This week has been great and I cant believe its already Monday again. The weeks go by so quickly and every day is so fast. I am astonished that it will be September on Sunday. Where does the time go?!

I dont know if you remember this story. But ill tell it again for those of you who dont. While Sister Grant was sick, we spent one day in the hospital. We were there for about five hours on June 28th. While we were in the hospital a man was rolled in from an ambulance. He had collapsed and was unconscious. We were sitting right outside the room in the hallway while this was all happening. We heard them doing cpr, epi pens, etc. just to get this guy to start breathing again. It was a bit scary and we literally heard him die. They called his time of death and said he was a John Doe, meaning that he had no identification for the time being. As we sat there, we eventually heard them find his identification and call his wife and family. I remember her crying and shaking her husband trying to get him to wake up. In my journal that day I wrote these exact words, "I just wish i couldve gone in there and told his wife the hope of the plan of salvation. Wouldnt it be awesome if we just randomly found her one time? Our message could give her so much hope." On wednesday we decided to go tracting around on Elm Street. The last house we went to was the home of Jordan and Thelia. Thelia is the mom and Jordan is the 11 year old daughter. Anyways, we somehow got on the subject of her neighbor and how she was going through a really hard time because she just lost her husband. She talked about what had happened. The whole thing happened about a month ago and the story sounded so familiar to what had happened that day in the hospital. I got the chills and told Thelia that i thought I might have been there that day in the hospital. She gave us the womans address and I could not stop thinking about it all day. The next day we had some time and we were on our way to the library to do some family history excercise, but on our way I had a feeling to stop at this womans house quickly, just to see if this woman really was the same lady from the hospital. We knocked on her door and I knew right when she opened the door that it was the same woman who was at the hospital on June 28th. At first, we talked as if it was a normal door approach and her husbands death came up. I asked her what day it happened and as she said "June 28th" chills ran down my spine and I just stopped and said, "I have actually seen you before. I was in the hospital the day that your husband died. I heard the whole thing happened and watched you walk in to the hospital. I wrote in my journal about the event and have been praying and hoping that I would be able to find you." We all started crying and I continued on by telling her that I knew this was no coincidence. she could have lived anywhere in Yuba City, i could have been transferred, but i was kept in this area because I needed to find her. I brought my journal with me that day, just in case it was her, and read her my journal entry. We all cried and it was the most amazing experience. Every single thing happens for a reason. I know that without a doubt. I still am so overwhelmed by the experience but feel such peach because now I get to do what the Lord would have me do and share the gospel and the hope of the plan of salvation with this woman. We are going back tonight to teach her and I just know that her husband and Heavenly Father want her to have this gospel and this happiness in her life.

Vaughn is getting baptized this week! We moved the baptism to Friday at 7pm and he is so excited! He is so ready and basically will do anything to make it to Friday. ITS MY FIRST BAPTISM! YAY! We are so excited and have been passing out invitations to everyone we see. Everything is all set and as long as he doesnt smoke this week, we are ready  to go.

Brad has been gone in Ohio this past week visiting his daughter. We have been texting with him every day and sharing scriptures. We helped him download the Mormon Channel app (which i suggest everyone does) and have been giving him different mormon messages to watch throughout the week. The other night he texted us randomly and asked "Are you guys going to be able to give speeches?" Confused, we asked him "At what?" (The best text ever came next!) "At my baptism, of course! Will you guys be able to speak at my baptism?" He is totally planning his baptism already and it makes us so happy!!!! :) Brad is so ready, he just needs to realize how ready he is. September 21st is still the date that we are planning for and we are still waiting on approval from the AP's so that we can have skype lessons with him at a members house. We are so excited for him!

Jessica, the woman that I helped teach when I was in the trio, was baptized on Thursday. It was an amazing day for her. Her 2 year old daughter Ashley, after seeing her mom get dunked, started yelling "I wanna go in wawa like momma. I want wawa  on my head like momma!" It was so funny. Sister Mac and I did a makeshift "wawa" experience, by putting her up on the bathroom counter and covering her hands with bubbles and washing it off in the water. It kept her busy through the rest of the baptism. Sista Mac and Sista Allen babysitters to the rescue! haha.

We have had our lunch payed for three times now. It was so nice. This week on Wednesday it happened again at this place called Linda's. It was right after district meeting and there were about 12 missionaries there. Linda's is delicious but not super cheap. About $8-$10 a plate. Some random guy in the resteraunt, who we later found out is in our stake, paid for all of our meals. It was so generous and kind. We couldnt believe it.

Seriously, i think there is some kind of crazy pills that leaked in to the water on Saturday.

A good scripture this week comes from D&C 121:7-8. This is what the Lord tells Joseph Smith as he is praying for comfort in Liberty Jail. Put your own name in where it says "my son" and you will be overcome by the spirit. I promise you that.

Yesterday at the Myers home, their kids showed us a few YouTube videos that were pretty funny. You guys should definitely watch them. "Im Mormon and I know It" "I knew you were mormon when you walked in" and "Book of Mormon style". Classic. Maybe theyre only funny because thats like the cleanest form of entertainment a missionary can watch. But, still they are worth a view. :)

Last night, we visited a less active/part member family. Im not lying when i say that they were the funniest, most sarcastic, couple I have ever met. My stomach hurt so bad from laughing so much. The husband (who isnt a member) owns a saddle. He told us that the one thing everyone needs to own is a saddle that is on wheels, that you can watch tv on. He said that anyone who is unhappy can be made happy with a ride on the rolling saddle. Bro Leist invited us back to ride anytime and said "If you ever have a bad day because no one wants to join the church, then come over anytime and ride the saddle" You bet we'll be back!

We found 9 new investigators and had about 26 other lessons this week. Thats the most Other lessons we have gotten. On Wednesday morning, we went over to this place called Gleaners. Gleaners is a food bank where they hand out food to those who are on low income. People wait in long lines just to get this food. Vaughn and Suzie (newly weds, getting baptized on friday couple) had this awesome idea of teaching all the people in line. It was the best idea ever. We handed out about 18 restoration pamphlets and 8 book of mormons. People couldnt run away from us because they were stuck in line and really needed/wanted the food, so it was perfect. We fed them spiritual food as they waited for their temporal food. :)

Things are going great for Sister MacDonald and I. We are really getting along and have already made the decision to room together when we both get back to Utah State. She is such a strength to me and i feel so grateful to be her trainer. I know that we were prepared for each other and that we were supposed to be companions.

I love you all and miss everyone like crazy! Thank you for all the prayers, love, and support. I can feel all of it. :)

EVERYONE HAVE A GREAT FIRST WEEK OF SCHOOL!

love,

sister allen

sisterlexisallen.blogspot.com

An email from Sister Allen

Hello all!

How has everyone been? I cant believe its Monday once again. It feels like it was just yesterday when i was writing everyone. This past week has been jammed packed and the work is hastening on like crazy!

Sister Macdonald and I would like to request a favor from you all. TELL THE PEOPLE TO STOP FEEDING US! Haha. Okay, seriously the food we get fed is delicious but I have never felt so full in my lifetime. I am so grateful, of course, that we are being fed so generously. But, people, my stomach can only take so much food. Sister Mac and I have started carrying around Tums in our purses because our stomachs literally hurt with how much food people feed us. Its a blessing and a curse. :)

The wedding was on friday night and was BEAUTIFUL! seriously, it turned out so great and was definitely a perfect simple wedding. I will send pictures. :) They are finally married and like Vaughn said, "It only took her 20 years to say yes." They are doing really well and were smiling from ear to ear all night long. The baptism is still on for the 31st for now...it may have to be moved to the week after or the thursday before because of Bro Myers, the person baptizing Vaughn, is going out of town that weekend. We are hoping that it happens on the 28th, but all we know right now is there will definitely be a baptism.

My allergies are acting up like crazy. It doesnt help that everyone has cats and that Yuba City is basically the pollen capital of the world. (That claritin is coming in handy mom) People are really attached to their animals here and me being the cat hater that i am, have a really hard time when every person grabs their cat, sticks it in my face saying "This is Snuggles." with a big grin basically asking me to pet it and love it. But guess what? i dont love it. i dont love snuggles and i dont like that cats make my eyes red and itchy. Sadly, they dont know/care and i have to fake my affection towards "Snuggles" by petting it and saying "aww...what a nice cat". While inside i am just thinking "holy cow, i will not be able to breathe tonight" and "do not touch anything with my right hand until i find a bathroom." This happens a couple times each day and hand sanitizer is my new best friend. :)

Jim, the 81 year old man from the Buttes Vista area, got baptized on saturday. We asked him how he felt about getting baptized and he let out a "humpf" as he shrugged his shoulders. Haha. It was a really cool experience and I am so glad that he finally got himself off of tobacco and coffee long enough to be baptized. He has been waiting a long time for this. He requested roast beef hash and grape, sugar free kool aid for refreshments and I have never seen him so happy.

On wednesday we were invited by one of our investigators to a lutheran church for a 'serve the homeless' dinner. We were a little worried about going, but it ended up being a great thing. We saw Terry, the woman who recieved the preisthood blessing a couple weeks ago. We have been trying to get a hold of her, but she is always working or sleeping. She was in really good spirits that night and invited us to come over on monday (tonight). She introduced us to her daughter and goes "These are MY missionaries. They are sooo wonderful!" We also picked up a new investigator there, his name is Steve and he even came to church yesterday. It was great to see him there and he is really open to learning more about churches. He says he has always gone to different ones but he has never found one that really sticks. Hopefully we will see him this week and be able to begin teaching him the lessons. I know without a doubt that the spirit will testify to him that our church is where he needs to be. The pastor of the Lutheran church came up to us as we were about to leave and was a little shocked to see us there. We quickly told him that we were not proselyting and were invited by a friend to just meet people and have a good time talking with people. He invited us to come and talk with him anytime and we may take him up on that offer. That might be an interesting conversation...

Things are going really well with our investigator Brad. He basically committed himself to September 21st for a baptismal date and we are so excited! We had a lesson with him on Saturday afternoon at the park. We taught him the gospel of jesus christ and it all made sense. Because he was taking lessons at the baptist church about a year ago, it was all very familiar to him but he told us that he doesnt know why, but this time it just makes sense to him. He is also the reason for the title of my email today. We were teaching him about the Word of Wisdom and Law of Chastity at the beginning of the week and he goes "Hold up for a second. You know what i really like about ya'll? Ya'll are PASSIONATE!" and gave us high fives. Haha it was awesome and he said he really enjoys that we know what we know and we are not afraid to testify of it. Brad came to a baptism on Saturday night and then attended church yesterday. Everyone is so impressed by him and talks about how great he is every time we see a member from the ward. Last night we had another lesson with him over at the Millers home. We were considering going over the Word of Wisdom with him because on Saturday he promised us that he would not drink the whole time he was trying to make a decision about our church. He even went camping on saturday night and as all his friends were getting drunk, he literally sat there and kept his promise to us. His friends mocked him at first and tried to get him to drink, but he didnt. He stuck to his word. (Amazing, right?) So we thought we would teach him about the blessings of the WOW. I felt like that would be good, but might not be exactly what he needed. I suggested we say a prayer and right after i got done, Sister Macdonald and I were silent and then looked each other and at the same time said "Holy Ghost". The lesson was incredible. We taught him how he can receive answers to questions, what the holy ghost feels like, the difference between the power and the gift of the holy ghost (look it up in the bible dictionary for those of you who dont know...i didnt know there was a difference until i was out here.), etc. He told us that earlier he was talking to his Ex-wife and the first time she called, he was super irritated and sarcastic with her. Previous to the second call, he had a feeling that he really should take the time to listen to what she has to say and even if he doesnt agree with it to just not fight back. He said, "its funny ya'll talked about this because now i know that was the Holy Ghost testifying to me" I seriously couldnt stop smiling. HE GETS IT! HE GETS IT! Sister Macdonald and I both felt so grateful that we decided to pray about that decision and know that the Lord definitely knows his children better than we do. We listened to the prompting and taught him exactly what he needed to hear. Sadly, Brad is leaving today until Sept 11th and so we wont be able to see him obviously. We are trying to set up a system where we can skype with him once every week he is gone to have a lesson with him. We would skype at a members home and make sure he finishes most of the lessons with us by the time he gets back from Ohio.

Sister Mac and I had a miracle on Tuesday with a woman named Lucero. We were over in her neighborhood for a lesson, but sadly they canceled with us last minute. The two of us decided that we would tract all the houses at the end of this street to be productive. We started going to each house and not a single house answered. We got to the other side of the street and were at the last house before the house that we started at and finally a woman answered. Her name was Lucero, she is in her early 20s and has two little girls. She is originally a Jehovahs Witness, but hasnt gone for a long time. We asked her if she had met with missionaries before and she said she had, twice. The first time was when she was in her teens and she just remembers that she loved the missionaries and thought they were so great. Sadly, her missionaries were transferred and so she discontinued the lessons. The second time was about two years ago. She was pregnant at the time and was on bed rest a lot, so she didnt have much time to meet with them. We continued to talk with her and all of a sudden she stopped us. She goes, "you guys are going to think i am crazy. i cant even believe this. i just got a good look at what your nametags say and read your last names. Macdonald and Allen? Those are the same last names as the Elders that taught me two years ago." I suddenly got the chills and could not even believe it. What a miracle! She was in shock and told us that we could DEFINITELY come back and teach her now. no questions asked. We have a lesson with her tomorrow and both of us have a feeling that this is her time! Third times the charm, right?

We had another crazy miracle on Saturday afternoon. After our lesson with Brad outside and another lesson after that on our other investigators front porch in the blazing heat, we decided it would be a good option to grab some water. The closest thing to us was a 7/11 and we decided to stop there. We walked in and one of our investigators, David was there! He had found work today and was treating himself to two hot dogs. We grabbed our water and some 2/$2 gatorades and headed back out to the car. The car right next to us had a hispanic man and his daughter sitting in it. As i was getting in, the man called out and said "hey, are you guys mormons?" in a thick mexican accent. We told him we were and he says, "I am Enrique." My jaw dropped! Enrique is a man that was a referral from online on mormon.org. We have stopped by his house almost every day the past two weeks hoping to catch him. The referral told us that he was baptized in 2009, but hasnt been active for the past 3 years due to some word of wisdom problems. He got out of his car and told us that he had gotten our card we left on his door and was sorry he hadnt gotten a hold of us sooner. He asked for the spanish elders to go over there and hopefully he went to church yesterday at the spanish branch. We are so blessed to have finally found him and who knew that a random 7/11 would be the place!

Look up Ether 12:27, that is a wonderful scripture that i have been sharing with everyone this week. heavenly father gives us trials so that we will come closer to him and ask for his help. All we have to do is recognize that we cant be alone through our trials, humble ourselves, and he will make us strong. There is no other way by which we can overcome our trials. I know that to be true and wish to tell everyone out here that there is hope.

I love everyone so much and am so grateful for all the love and support!

Love,
Sister Allen

An email from Sister Allen...

hello everyone!

happy two month mark to me!! its official. i have been out here for two months so far and i cant believe it. 2 months seems like it came and went so quick. Its been a crazy and amazing ride so far. I am so lucky to be out here. The Lord has shown his trust in me and I in him throughout these past two months. Lets see, its been two months and i lost my trainer in the first two weeks, joined a trio, covered two huge areas, and now im training. Maybe i should stop saying "BRING IT ON!". But then again, maybe i shouldnt stop because i feel extremely happy and that this is exactly what was supposed to happen.

My new companion is awesome! Everyone told me training would be hard, but i actually love it! My companions name is Carissa Macdonald. She is from Centerville, Utah and went to Utah State for a semester before coming out here. Its really funny because we know all of the same people and we both think we have seen each other before. She is super cute and ready to work hard! Sis. Macdonald is definitely super in tune with the spirit and that has been such a blessing in our companionship. It is so awesome and we are getting along so well. This past week it felt like the miracles were endless each day. One after another kept happening and it is an amazing thing.

Friday was our MIRACLE DAY. It literally was like one after another, something kept happening and it was amazing. So we went to lunch on Friday with our Ward Mission Leader, Bro Miller. At lunch, he said that one of the missionaries who previously served in Feather River told him that the days she saw the most miracles is when they decided to park way down the street and walk all the way to the lessons. Stopping to talk to every single person along the way. So after lunch, we decided to give it a try. Our lesson was with Eddie, a referral from the mormon.org website that we had made an appointment with the night before. We parked 3 blocks away from his house and got out of the car to walk. Thats when the miracles began. As we were walking, a woman named Patrika rolled up on her electric scooter. She asked us if we had any food we could spare her and coincidentally Bro Miller had just given us this small box of fresh vegetables to eat. We told her that we had this box of veggies in the car and asked if she wanted to go with us back to our car and grab them. She was so grateful. We gave her the food and started talking with her about the church. She said she believed in God and He was the one who has gotten her through life. She doesnt belong to a certain religion and doesnt find it necessary, but
definitely believes in God. We gave her a Restoration pamphlet and invited her to meet with us this next week. We promised that the message we had was one of hope and could bless her life and help her through the challenges she was facing in life. She agreed to meet with us and we are going back tonight to teach her the first lesson. MIRACLE #1! We started back down the road towards Eddies and sadly, Eddie was still in Sacramento and wasnt going to be back until later that evening. We rescheduled with him for Saturday and then decided to go back to the car. As we were walking down his driveway and just as we had stepped on to the sidewalk a man on a bike called out to us and says "HEY! Are you guys sisters?" We turned around in surprise and told him we were. This is David. David is a member of the church. He has been inactive for about 20 years. He was in the bishopric, served a mission in Japan, and suffers from alcoholism. He has begun to turn his life around and has started attending AA meetings. David has been attending the Pentacostal church for a year now and is living with one of the families in the church. He has been praying and searching for the missionaries because he feels like now is the right time to come back to the "church of his fathers and ancestors", as he called it. He has struggled a lot in the past with different worldly temptations and definitely needs the power of the Atonement in his life. Sis Macdonald promised him that the Atonement and this gospel could bless his life and he could be happy again. He started crying and he knows that this is exactly where he needs to be. He told us he would attend church on Sunday and we gave him the Bishops number so he could meet with him as well. (Yes, he did come to church yesterday. He only stayed for sacrament but at least he came. :) We also asked him if he had been reading in his Book of Mormon. David told us that his mom kept bugging him to save up his money to buy one, but at this time with no income he couldnt put that as his first priority. We pulled a brand new copy out of our bag and told him "here, you can have this one for free." He started crying again and said this was an answer to his prayers and how grateful he was that he stopped us. He called us again last night and we are meeting with him tomorrow. He asked us to teach him and go through the lessons with him again and we are so excited to help him through this.) Another random thing, he knows a bunch of Sis Macdonalds family because his sister and his parents live up in the Centerville area. His niece even went to highschool with Sis Macdonald. He graduated from Viewmont and so did Sis Macdonald as well as her parents. Our hearts were so full with gratitude for heavenly father for leading him to us. We said a prayer directly after and both of us were holding back tears. It was an amazing moment filled with the spirit. So yeah, that was GIANT Miracle #2!! We thought that was more than enough miracles for one day, but heavenly father thought differently. :) As we were walking back down to our car, there was a man sitting on the street corner smoking a cigarette. We stopped and began talking with him. Our conversation went a little like this:

Us: "Hi there. We are the sister missionaries from the church of jesus christ of latter day saints. How are you doing today?"

Him: "Im fine."

Us: "You just hanging out trying to cool down. Its really hot today."

Him: "yup." (at this point, we thought all hope was lost haha.)

Us: "Well, have you ever talked with missionaries before? Are you religious at all?"

Him: "Ive been baptized."

Us: "Oh really? Thats cool. When were you baptized?"

Him: "When I was 8..."

(the wheels started turning in my head but there was no way that he could actually be baptized in our church, right? you dont meet random people in yuba city that are apart of your church. theres just not that many members here...but i asked anyways...)

Me: "Oh okay...well, uhm, what church were you baptized in?"

Him: "Your church. The mormon church."

WHAT?!

Thats when my jaw almost hit the floor. What the? You dont just meet people who have already been baptized...those things just dont happen. haha. BUT, everythings possible with the Lord. My goodness though!!

We talked to him a little more about his past with the church. He told us he had been inactive for about 6 years. He didnt have a Book of Mormon and we told him to wait there as we literally ran back to the car and ran back with one in our hand. It was AWESOME! That was miracle friday. three miracles within thirty minutes and we were so grateful.

Brad, our investigator who is 21 and in the Air Force, has been meeting with us a lot this week! He even came to church yesterday and stayed all three hours! He loved church! He was talking all about it and liked the personal aspect of it. He said it was very simple and thats how religion should be. Sunday night he even came to the YSA fireside. (Sister Macdonald and I both had the opportunity to speak to the young adults in our ward and let them know our conversion stories. It was an amazing moment and I felt very blessed to share.) Brad was talking about how it was "his church" and "when he's a member of the church". WOW! i couldnt believe my ears. We are hoping to have him baptized by September 14th. Sadly, he will be out of town from Aug 20-Sept 11, but we are planning on setting up lessons over Skype at a members home with him so we can get through all the lessons. :) He is so ready. He just doesnt know it yet!

The Schmidt-Bosquet wedding is this week and we have lots of things to prepare for the big day. Sister Macdonald and I are in charge of the decorations and I am now grateful for those countless hours of pinning on pinterest. haha. Its going to be beautiful, simple, and just what they need. The 31st is still the date that we are planning on for his baptism. Yesterday was hard for him and was dealing with some of his PTSD. He is still doing well and keeping all his commitments. Satan will definitely start trying him as the days wind down.

Oh yeah, i sprained my ankle in soccer on Tuesday morning. That was fun. I had to hobble around on crutches for the day and my ankle was very swollen. Things are looking better this week and by Thursday it was feeling a lot better.

EVERYONE, read 2 Nephi 26:33. It is my favorite scripture right now and a huge testament that everyone deserves a chance at this gospel. No matter who they are, they deserve eternal life. Everyone can change and that is why we have the blessings of the Atonement in our life. Look at people at what they can become and the potential they have, instead of the way they are at this point in their life. Everyone can grow and learn and God will deny no one from the blessings of his gospel. Dont be afraid to invite. Invite with love and the spirit will testify to them that this gospel is the true word of god. This is the same church that Jesus organized when he was on the earth. They will come to understand that as you do your part as member missionaries. I know that with all of my heart.

thank you for all of the packages, letters, and emails. i love you all and wish i had more time to respond to you individually. i pray for each of you every day and dont worry about me because I am definitely being taken care of out here. By my amazing mission president, the members, my companion and especially by the Lord. I love you all and miss everyone!

Love,
Sister Allen

An email from Lexis...

Last night at about 9:45 we got transfer calls and guess what?! I AM EXPECTING!

im expecting a new baby missionary straight from the MTC and shes gonna get here wednesday.
haha! i am training! i am training and senior companion after only being out here for 6 weeks! I am the only one out of the huge group of missionaries that came out with me 6 weeks ago that is training and i feel so blessed that the Lord trusts me in this decision. I feel prepared to take on this opportunity and know how important a trainer is for new missionaries in their first 12 weeks.

i will still be serving in the Feather River ward and will have to move back in to my old apartment this week. I am very excited to find out who I will train. We go down wednesday to the mission office to pick them up and have a little orientation. I cant wait!

This past week has been great! I love being out here serving and know that the Lord continues to give us miracles each day. None of this would be possible without the Lord and I know it.

We had an amazing experience at the beginning of the week with one of the investigators in the Buttes Vista Area. Her name is Jessica. She has been investigating the church for about 7 years now off and on. She has made the decision to be baptized on August 22nd and since she chose a date a lot of weird stuff has been happening to her. Especially in her home with her 2 year old daughter Ashley. Her daughter kept saying that there was a little boy in her house who was trying to hurt her. But there really wasnt a little boy, if you know what i mean. Creepy stuff. Anyways, Jessica decided to have her house dedicated and asked for a preisthood blessing. So on Monday night, the zone leaders and a member from the buttes vista ward came over and did that for us. It was an amazing experience and the evil spirits that were there were cast out right as the prayer was started. One of the zone leaders said that as he started the prayer it felt like someone punched him right between the shoulder blades and then the air conditioning shut off and it was completely silent. As he continued he felt like someone was watching him the whole time as he was praying. He then said the words "Let any unclean spirits that dwell here, be cast out" and all of a sudden it was silent and he said he felt like at that moment whatever was there was then outside the house and was watching through the window and couldnt come back in. It was crazy amazing. I was so grateful to be there. Oh and the best part was that Jessica and her daughter got blessings, but so did her husband who is super catholic. He wanted one and told Jessica later that he could "see himself doing that one day" (in regards to being a member of the church) AWESOME, RIGHT?!

Things have been going really well with Bro Schmidt. He has been doing everything that we assign him to do and is more than ready to be baptized. He hasnt smoked since August 1st and made the decision to start the month off right and go cold turkey. Him and Sis Bosquet are going to be married by the bishop on August 17th and I can not wait! We're gonna have a wedding!! People in the ward are making a beautiful cake and someone offered to do the flower arrangements. She wants something very small and its going to be BEAUTIFUL!! I cant even wait! He is so dedicated to be baptized and they are basically counting down the days until they can go to the temple and be sealed. I am really hoping that i will be able to go with them when they are sealed. How amazing would that be?!

So on Friday we went on exchanges. Sister Giani (my awesome mtc companion) came with Sis Powell and I while Sis Tittle (sis gianis companion) and Sis Dalton went to mission leadership council. Basically it was the best exchange ive ever been on. 1. because sis giani is like my other half and i love her 2. because we got to craft wedding decorations for a less active in our ward (Sis Luke) and 3. because we literally got to roll around in a giant human size hamster ball. Haha, im not kidding. Sis Luke has this huge inflatable hamster ball that you can climb inside and roll around in. All three of us got in to it at the same time and we were DYING laughing. I could not even handle it. I have plenty of pictures that I will send today. You guys have to see this thing. Im pretty sure I will have to invest in one of them when I get home. It was a blast! Not your typical day in the missionary life, thats for sure! HAHA.

Sadly, Sister Grant (the best trainer of all time) was released but she has a year to decide whether or not she wants to come back out here. I really hope she does but I definitely think she needs to focus on getting better first and then she can make that decision. One thing at a time, people.

Familia, Elder Wilcox (from provo) is coming home today from his mission and has a box for you guys. Its just a bunch of random letters and stuff. Nothing too exciting, but he will be dropping that off for you guys this week!

I hope everyone is doing well and PLEASE keep me in your prayers. I need them this week. I have a big week as a new trainer ahead of me. :) Ill send pictures of my new missionary as soon as i can! Im sure everything will be great. The Lord knows what he is doing.

I love you all and miss you all! Thank you everyone who sent me letters or packages this week. you are truly amazing for taking that time to do so!

LOVE YOU GUYS!!

love,

sister allen