MTC: Week 5

So I have a ton to write about. First, I am going to be leaving for sure next week! I do not have my visa yet so I will get reassigned thursday after in-field orientation. I will get the chance to call home for 5 minutes so I will be calling mom at 8:20 or so Friday morning. If you want to hear where I am reassigned then call her before-hand and hopefully we can do a joint call. Since my companion is Canadian she will actually be going to Argentina on Monday at 7:30 a.m. so I will be missing her like crazy.

Second, RICHARD G. SCOTT spoke at devotional last night!!! One of the best nights of my life and it was exactly what I needed to hear. He focused on prayer/ communication with our father and how much of a privelage it is. He also left us with his apostalic blessing to learn and master the language. It was so great because after we sang and the girl got up to pray to end the meeting he hurried back up and said a few more words. He said that the Lord has called us to succeed and not fail. He will not abandon us and He knows what we need. He knows what we will become. He will help us recognize the strength that we already have that you did not previously know. AMAZING RIGHT?! My favorite part was when he said that the principle to ask in faith is to have confidence. He also said something that I felt like I should write down and share in my email which is about receiving answers to your prayers. He said that if you feel like you have not received an answer ponder sections 6,8, & 9 in Doctrine & Covenants and see/review if He has already answered you. Elder Scott said there are three ways God answers our prayers: 1. feel the confirmation and peace from the Spirit, 2. stupor of thought (you do not feel good about the decision you have made/feel like it is wrong), or 3. you feel no response. In times where we feel no response Elder Scott said that we should thank our Heavenly Father for trusting us. The whole discourse was amazing and I am incredibly blessed to have been there. I was actually 10 feet away or so, so that was awesome! No one knew that he was coming. Usually there are rumors that an apostle is coming but this time I didnt hear anything. Total shock for everyone!

Next, I listened to a talk by Elder Bednar that helped me understand teaching so much more. I have no idea what it is called because it was never stated on any of the advertisement things but it is all about doctrines, principles, and applications. He said that the doctrine was the "why", principles were the "what" and application is the "how". Elder Bednar said that the reason we have so many issues with home teaching and other principles is because we focus on the how. How to make it better or how to force others to do it, but he said that what we should be focusing on is the why. Why is home teaching important, or why is a family struggling to come to church. If people understood the DOCTRINE behind the commandments then he said that there is no way they would not keep that commandment. He used 3 Nephi 9:14 which says that they understood in their hearts. When we understand the doctrine it becomes written on our hearts.

The Last main spiritual thing I want to talk about is Relief Society on Sunday. We had Mary Edmunds come to speak to us (I had no idea who she was either before I heard her talk), and she told us a bunch of stuff about missions. She has served four! It was cool for me because I got to see the future me. Seriously, though, she is a bit of a quack and everyone loved it! So all my weirdness that will eventually stew to overflowing will be generally accepted in an old lady. This is the wonderful future I can look forward to!

Now to the funny things. The Elders in my district were eating jello one day and decided to test its elasticity by shaking it as hard as they could from side to side and then up and down. It eventually escalated into jello flipping and Elder Allen (no relation) flipped it perfectly over on the place. It was funny but then he was going to do it again for someone who hadnt saw him do it and that time he missed and it landed on the table. Let me just say that the jello did not change one bit the whole time. Even landing on the table it didnt fall apart. I laughed like crazy. OH! Also, every gym time I play volleyball and yesterday when we played, two other Hermanas in my district joined us. It was probably the best game I have experienced yet, but the funny part was that one of the sisters was trying to kick the ball back to the server on the other side. She kicked it and hit Hermana Alexander in the leg (she had kicked it pretty hard too) and the ball came right back to her, so she kicked it again but this time hit Hermana Mills in the face who was standing right next to Hermana Alexander. It was the best thing ever and I laughed for 5 minutes or so.

There is an Elder Christofferson in our zone that is one of the most amazing singers ever! I wanted to cry hearing him sing Come thou Fount and then he sang How Great Thou Art. I love my zone and district and I cant wait to start my mission. I am extremely nervous but It will all work out well. I know it will. I wanted to send pictures but I cant find the Hermana that has them. Please continue to write me. I want to hear from all of you! I love you all so much. I'm so excited to share all of these experiences with you.

Hermana Allen

MTC: Week 4

This week has been a roller coaster just like all the other weeks. It was so wonderful to have a break from the normal schedule for conference and be able to invite our "investigators" to hear the prophet speak. On Friday night I tried to go to sleep early which back fired because I didnt really sleep much the whole night. It was 76 degrees in our room and I was roasting. I would wake up because of that then would stay awake because someone was snoring. I was a little grouchy all morning and then when conference hit I realized how stupid I was being. I tried to stay awake for the whole thing but I missed a lot of Elder Eyring's talk. Never in my entire life have I tried to stay awake so hard. I took notes to help me but they make absolutely no sense. I can barely read my hand writing and the words dont add up to anything. One thing I wrote (just to give you an idea of what I mean) was "love everyone minister unto us." I have no idea what I was going for there so maybe you can help me out. Lack of sleep has slowly become less of a trial for me, which is nice. This last week during language study I was trying to stay awake during Tall (an online learning language program) and when I was done with an assessment I submitted it and looked over what was wrong and right. I only remember answering 4 of the 20 questions and 14 of all of them were rightly marked. It freaked me out a little that I couldnt consciously remember saying any of that stuff, reading the questions, or marking the answers.

After General Conference our devotional was actually a little fireside given by vocal point (a musical group from BYU). They sang come thou fount, elders of israel, where can I turn for peace, I need thee every hour, and my favorite: noyanna. Noyanna (not sure if that is how you spell it) is a song combined with come thou fount and some african words. The words translated into "are you going? are you going to heaven? we are on the path, are you coming with us?"

Everything has been going well and I have been trying to speak in spanish more. I am scared a little to be thrown in Argentina but I also am incredibly excited to learn more and be used more in the work of the Lord. Today we met with the Argentina Consulate and signed the papers necessary to obtain our visas. After this we only have to wait. Hopefully we will go on time but honestly I have no idea what is going to happen. I think I could get my visa on time but if not then I will most likely be temporarily reassigned to some place in the states. I really just want to go to Argentina to get used to their accent and start the work there, but if I need to be in another area I know that is where Heavenly Father wants me.

Funny things that happened this week?: Canada and I practiced door contacting with Hermano Clarke on the 4th and it went pretty well.  We did it with 3 or 4 "different" people so it was awesome practice. At one point the door contacting was hilarious because Canada said me gusto instaid of much gusto. Me gusto means I please myself. When he corrected her after (which he did in a super loving and friendly/gentle way) we started laughing like crazy. I finally stopped laughing and we were about to knock when Hermano Clarke storms out of the room abruptly which scared the crap out of me and I thought he was going to pretend to be a mean investigator but he only came out to ask us about our schedule for that day. I was laughing so hard out of partial fear and hilarity. I didnt explain it as well as I can in person but if we were in person you would be laughing it up.

Hermana Canada and I have been teaching our investigators about the plan of salvation. One of our investigators is David and we planned to do a 3D plan of salvation with him. We made little things that he could step on to represent each part of the plan of salvation. When he got to earth life we started throwing paper at him to represent his trials. He laughed with us as we threw paper at him (he threw it back playfully) and the lesson went really well. We teach our other investigator (Enrique) tonight and we are making a mini house out of cardboard and nail files (we couldnt find popsicle sticks) to represent the works we do in this life. It is not a perfect house on purpose so that when we talk about the atonement, it can fix all the mistakes me made in the house. Enrique works construction so we thought it would be a cute way to apply it to him. Both ideas were Hermana Canada's so I am grateful I have her as a companion. I am trying to be more creative as well but I have yet to come up with anything too crazy. I love missionary work and I love being an instrument in the Lord's hands. I love you all!! Write me people! 

Hermana Allen