Tuesday, August 11, 2015

August 3, 2015 - What a Miracle

Wow. What a week! On Tuesday, I had my first intercambios!!!! I was super nervous! Hermana Stevens left for a different city so I was left to lead the area with a latina who didn't speak any English. I was really nervous beforehand but she got here and we got going, it was so good! It was a nice confidence boost to be able to lead the lessons and the contacting and such for a little bit. Also, it helped me so much with Spanish! It was super cool because I could understand and communicate perfectly with Hermana Gallardo. It's as if Puerto Rican spanish is a whole other language. They are so hard to understand! But Hermana Gallardo is from Mexico and I could understand just fine, so I'm just working on the Puerto Rican part of Spanish now..... :) Anyways, it was super fun and now I hopefully won't be as nervous for other intercambios. :)

This week was pretty rough again though. Once again most of our citas fell through and we did a lot of walking and contacting. It was hard too because our investigators, A and J aren't all that interested anymore. So that's a bummer. But we are going to keep trying and working with them. We're hoping it's just a trial of their faith and that they'll get over it soon. But we just kept on going and working hard all week and Heavenly Father blessed us with a huge miracle at the end of the week. I think I talked about him a little bit last week, but two Saturdays ago, we had contacted a man on the street who had said "There's something different about you... I think it's the spirit." We were super excited to teach him so we invited him to church the next day, but he didn't show up. But we kept trying. So we called him and set up a cita every single day but every single time he fell through and didn't show. We were so sad because he had so much potential. So on Saturday we decided to call him one last time and invite him to church. And he said he would come! So Sunday morning we called him again just to be sure and he said he was already on his way! We waited outside and he came! He lives about 45 min away from the capilla on foot and he walked the entire way! What a sacrifice! Then we had church and after Priesthood when we saw him again we asked how he liked it and he said "I want to be baptized. What do I need to do to be baptized?" It was incredible! So we planned out the next two weeks with him so he can be baptized on the 15th. Then we decided to teach him the first lesson right there, so we sat down and taught him. but honestly, he was teaching us. He already knew so much and understood everything so perfectly, it was incredible! At the end we asked him to pray to know if these things are true and he said "I already know. I know Joseph Smith was a prophet. I know we have a living prophet today. I know this is the church of God. I've been to other churches before but I've never seen anyone bear their testimonies with such surety like I saw here, so how can it not be true?" the Spirit was so strong and we were all crying and so so so happy. It was the best experience I have every had and one that I will never forget. It was very interesting too, because since it was fast Sunday we had decided to pray for our investigators with baptismal dates and that they would be prepared for their dates. We realized that this man was our answer to our fast. Our investigators can attend his baptism and we are positive that that will help our other investigators so much. What a joyful day it was! Heavenly Father truly works miracles and truly loves His children. The church is so true!

Also, we had a testimony meeting last night with the entire mission. It was so cool! And I saw Hermana Jacobsen again! My goodness, I just love her. :) It was really interesting though because we had some time to socialize with other missionaries afterwards and so I met a lot of knew people. When I told people what area I'm in, they all would say "Oh I'm so sorry. What a bummer. That area is the worst." I was shocked. I mean yes it's a hard area, but I love it and slowly but surely it's growing and being strengthened and it's amazing to me to see the little miracles every day in this area. I realized that attitude really does change everything. Some don't have faith in the potential of this area. It's amazing what faith and a positive attitude can do. I've seen it as I look through the area book and read about the past hermanas' experiences and the tiny miracles they saw. It's all about perspective. Heavenly Father can do anything. We just need to submit ourselves completely to Him through faith and obedience and only then will He bless us with miracles. 

To answer some of your questions, no we don't do a lot with the members. I've only eaten with members two times (it was delicious!). And mini missionaries are fabulous! If Chris can do one, then I say do it! After seeing these mini missionaries, I wish I could have done one too. :) 

I was reading 2 Nephi 26 and it goes along perfectly with the scripture in Acts. (Mainly 2 Nephi 26:24-end). God offers salvation to anyone who will come unto Him. I think I told you about the recent convert in this branch who was a criminal and spent 17 years in jail and was doing terrible things, but God prepared Him anyways and sent missionaries to him to give him the chance to accept the truth. God gives everyone that chance to change and receive the blessings of this gospel. Also, sometimes when we are planning we will feel impressed to go visit our 105 year old man just to sing song with him or visit this other elderly lady just to read to her. Sometimes, we question it because it doesn't help us reach our goals and it's not contacting or teaching or finding, but God loves them just the same and even though they probably won't progress and be baptized in this life, God cares about them and sends us to help them and to brighten their day. He truly is no respecter of persons and cares about each and every one of His sons and daughters and will help them in anyway He possibly can. 

Well, Puerto Rico is just wonderful! It is absolutely the most gorgeous place I have ever seen! It's so green and has so many varieties of plants and fruit and animals and there are mountains and oceans and all kinds of different areas, I just love it! It's absolutely gorgeous and I'm so grateful for this opportunity to be here! Thanks for all of your support and love! I love you all!!! 

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~Hermana Allan

ps. pictures still aren't working... I think it's the cord or the card reader or something. Would you possibly be able to send something else that I can try? The memory card is a micro SD card so something that can read that would be great. Thanks so much! 

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