WEEK 2

Hi friends and fam!!!!

I understand now what everyone has said about just being so exhausted alllll the time. Last week went so fast though and I bet this week will go by even faster. WE GOT TRAVEL PLANS!!!!! We're leaving October 30th and we have two layovers. One in Texas and the other in Florida and then we should be in Jamaica around 7:30!!! There are 3 elders going to Jamaica with Sister Lichtenberg and I. We had to get our blood drawn last week, but the nurse was the best so we survived and we met one of the elders going to Jamaica. Just pray that we all get our visas in time!! We leave at 3:45am :') Wish us luck.

Our sister training leaders/neighbors left for Canada this week and we were all so sad! They were seriously the best, but we'll keep in touch for sure. Our district played a lot of sports together this week and it was a blast. We played volleyball, basketball, and then it was super nice outside the other day so we played sand volleyball. It was so fun! The weather has been amazing! Let's hope that it stays this way because Sister Lichtenberg and I are sending home our jackets today haha. Our Elders are incredibly competitive and the Sisters just don't really care so that has made things really interesting.

This week was sooo good! I still absolutely LOVE the MTC! I've never laughed or cried as much as I have here hahah. I've learned so much in such a short time. It feels like we've been here forever, but it's going by so fast. Time is a weird thing here. I'm doing so many things I used to really hate and now I don't even really mind them. Sister Lichtenberg and I taught the Relief Society lesson on Sunday! I think it went pretty well. We also have to demonstrate how to teach in front of all the new missionaries tomorrow so that's TERRIFYING. Pray for us. I feel so inadequate to be teaching all of these people, but this week I learned something really awesome. God could've easily done this work on His own, but He chose to let us have this opportunity in really learning how to love people. He trusts us THAT much. I feel like that's pretty brave because half the time I don't think any of the people we teach understand what comes out of our mouths, but they feel the Spirit and that's what really matters.

I've come to a better realization this week that God really loves His children. For every frustrating, hard moment here there are a million good ones soon after. Also, we talked a lot about the apostasy this week. God has always had/will always have His arms stretched out to us, it's our choice whether to let Him in or not. During the time of the apostasy, He was still reaching out through Reformers to tell them bits and pieces of the truth, but no one fully accepted it. When Joseph Smith came along it was the perfect time and place to bring the fulness back.

We're teaching this cute lady from Costa Rica right now. She is kinda hard to understand sometimes because her accent is so strong, but she's seriously THE BEST. She grew up Catholic and then Protestant for a little while. She said in her Protestant faith they taught her to fear God. She said she had to be so careful with what she asked God because He would get upset with her if she asked the wrong thing. She hasn't prayed in over 8 years because she's so scared of God. That made us soooo sad! In one of her religions they also taught her that there was just a heaven and a hell and if you mess up, there's no second chances. We taught her about Jesus Christ and how with Him, we have a way to repent so that we can return to live with Heavenly Father again. We can be forgiven of our mistakes. It's not over if we mess up. We also talked to her about how much God LOVES her and wants to talk to her. We told her that she could talk to Him about absolutely anything and she loved that concept. THIS CHURCH IS SO TRUE. It truly is Christ's church restored to the Earth for our days. Other churches have so many bits and pieces of truth, but this is the fulness of that truth.

One of our teachers is Brother Hampshire and he is a GENIUS on all things scripture. He is studying at BYU to become an institute professor and I really don't think I have ever met someone who knows more about the scriptures. You can name any chapter in the scriptures and he could give you a summary. Life goals. Anyway, we were reading in the Book of Mormon the other day in 1 Nephi 1 and he was helping us understand why this was the first chapter of the Book of Mormon since it isn't chronologically first. He said everything is in the order it's in for a reason. He described the story of Lehi and his family and their entire story and then (I can't even do this explanation justice) he related it back to Joseph Smith and how it's his same story and it was MIND BLOWING. I know I'm sorry that doesn't make sense, but study it on your own because it's life changing. Then he talked about how the Book of Mormon is truly a "Preparation for the Second Coming" manual and that it's here just for us!!! How awesome is that?! I guess I've never really thought of it that way. Study the Book of Mormon! It's so awesome and meant specifically for our day.

I love being a missionary! It's seriously the best thing in the whole world being able to wear Christ's name on me EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. It comes with a lot of responsibility, but also soooo many blessings.

Fam - Thanks SO much for the package! It's like Christmas getting packages here. Sister Beddoes, Sister Wagstaff, and Sister Lichtenberg (my roommates) really loved the snacks too. We ate them all :) And thank you for your sweet notes!!!

Grandma and Grandpa Smith - Thank you so so much for the cinnamon rolls!!!! They were delicious.

I LOVE YOU ALL SO SO SOOOO MUCH!!!!!

Love,

Sister Allen

P.S. So sorry about the pics last week! I hope they work this time.