November 7, 2016 - Becoming Like Christ

What an amazing week!!!! I hope I have enough time to write about it all, because it truly was incredible! :)

First, for Halloween we were told to come home early and stay at home because it was too dangerous to be out, so we came home and decided to blast the AC in our bedroom and make it super cold and wear sweats and make hot chocolate so that it felt like winter and Halloween back home. It was super fun. :) haha :) 

And then, J. is such a huge miracle!!!! We taught her the Word of Wisdom this week and she is super addicted to coffee so she was super nervous when we first taught it and almost cried when she handed us the coffee she had, but after a couple days and lots of encouragement, she found the strength to do it and as of right now she's coffee free! She also went with us to a baptism this saturday and she loved it and is super excited for her baptism this week! We're sooo excited!!!! :) 

Also, we met so many people this week that are super interested and that want to be baptized! We met someone named Lily and we invited her to be baptized in the first lesson and she was so excited and said yes! When we left we left her with a chapter in the Book of Mormon to read and the next day she texted us and said she read it and wanted us to give her another chapter to read. She is wonderful and so prepared!

Then on Saturday we had a ward service project doing yard work for a Nursing Home. It was so fun being with the members! I just love them so so very much!!! 

And to answer your questions...... here it usually downpours for like 30 min just about every day now. But sometimes it's only sprinkling.... it just depends on the week I suppose. :) Also, when Puerto Ricans go on vacation (which is very rare) they usually go to Florida, but if you're a member, you usually go to Utah. 

Thank you soooooooooooooooooooo much for signing me up for classes!!! You are wonderful!!! Thank you!!!! The schedule looks great! Thank you so much! 

I read something this week that I absolutely fell in love with. It's an article called "The Perfect Lie". A lot of times we have this idea in mind: Me+More=Christ-like. But really, that's what Satan wants us to believe. It's a trap. It's only going to lead us to disappoinment and failure. But if we change it a little bit, we have what it's supposed to be: Me+Christ=More. Yes our goal is to become more Christ-like, but He doesn't expect us to do it alone. He will be with us every step of the way and we will be able to accomplish so much more with Him then we ever could alone. I know that with Christ, we can be so much more and we can reach our full potential. 

I love you all so so very much and hope you have an absolutely wonderful week!!! LOVE YOU!!!!! :) 

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~Hermana Allan

October 31, 2016 - Mis Queridos Boricuas

Delicious desserts!

Hello family!!!! HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!! Halloween basically doesn't exist here, but I hope you're all enjoying it on that side of the world. :) This week was SOOO good. It was absolutely incredible and I am blown away every day by this remarkable opportunity I've been given to be a missionary. I'm so very grateful for this past year and a half. It's been the most beautiful experience in the world! :) This week we got to clean quite a few windows for the members. It was so much fun being able to spend that time with them and get to know them better. I love these Boricuas so so very much! 

Then, we've been teaching this lady named J.  But she is amazing! She is progressing so much and she came to a ward activity we had on Saturday and then she came to church on Sunday and she loved it all! She's super excited for her baptism on the 12th and we are too! :) And mom, I think you asked about her fear to come to church. It's more of a fear of commitment and failure. All Puerto Ricans have it. They don't want to fail in the future so they don't bother making the commitment now. But we've been working with her on this and I think she's overcoming it, so it's all good! :) 

On Saturday, we had a dessert night with the ward and it was so much fun! There are quite some delicious desserts here in Puerto Rico! But I think I might have diabetes now..... :) As we were setting up for the activity, a member came up to me and asked "Are you ready-?!" Thinking of the activity I said, "Yeah! Of course!" And then she said "-ready to go home!" It was super funny but kind of a reality check too. I can't believe November has come so stinking fast! It's absolutely crazy... But the members are all so great and ever since they found out I'm leaving soon, they've been buying Puerto Rico souvenirs for me. It's the sweetest thing in the world. I love them so much. 

Then, we had a zone activity today! We went to a park and played soccer and frisbee and some other sports and then ate pizza. It was super fun until it started pouring rain..... but it was super fun! :)

I don't really have a specific spiritual experience to share this week, but just all this week I've been so full of gratitude for this gospel and all the blessings we have because of it. I'm so grateful for our Father in Heaven who loves us and cares about us and has sent us His son Jesus Christ to make it possible for us to return to Him. This truly is the true church and the only place where we can find the authority of God and the fulness of the gospel. I'm so grateful that I've been born into the covenant and that I've been blessed with such wonderful parents who have raised me in this gospel and an incredible family who love and support me and have helped me become who I am today. 

I love you guys so so very much and hope you have an absolutely wonderful week!!!! I LOVE YOU!!!!!! :)

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~Hermana Allan

October 24, 2016 - The Atonement and Missionary Work

Hello family!!! I love you all so much!!!! 

But..... this week was really good! We had zone meeting on Tuesday and we taught the Atonement and introduced new Standards of Excellence. It was such a powerful meeting. The Atonement is absolutely incredible and I'm so grateful for how much it helps us and enables us in our lives. I learned that the key to being an powerful missionary is having a fuerte understanding and testimony of the Atonement. If we truly understand the Atonement, we'll become truly converted to Christ and the sign of true conversion is the desire to share the gospel with everyone. So if we strengthen our testimony of the Atonement we will have the desire to bring his truth to every one of our brothers and sisters. It was such a wonderful meeting and the spirit was so strong! 

Also, we're teaching this lady named J. and she is wonderful! She accepted to be baptized on the 12th of November and she is always so excited to learn more and prepare for her baptism! The only thing is that she has a fear of going to church, so we're working on that one, but other than that she is progressing so much and changing each and every day as she applies the gospel in her life! 

I also had one of the best intercambios ever this week! I was with Hna. Guevara from Mexico and she is such a powerful missionary! She started her mission in Mexico for 3 transfers waiting for her visa and then has been here in Puerto Rico for 3 weeks. I learned so much from her! She was telling me about how hard the adjustment has been because in Mexico, they have baptisms just about every week, but here... it's a lot different. But she taught me a really cool lesson. She said that it doesn't matter that we contact 100 people who reject us while Mexico is contacting 100 people who get baptized, because we're all on the same team and all working towards the same goal. Those 100 contacts in Mexico have the same value as the 100 contacts we have here. We're all working in the vineyard of the Lord and maybe the people here aren't choosing to be baptized, but we are still doing our job of bringing the gospel to them and giving them the opportunity to accept it. Sometimes I feel a little frustrated that some of my friends are having tons of baptisms while I'm not, but then I realized, it's true. We are all on the same team. And I'm so super happy that people in other countries are changing their lives and choosing to repent and be baptized. And I'm going to keep working hard here in Puerto Rico so that hopefully I can find some that will also choose to repent and be baptized. 

Also on the intercambio, we went to an appointment at night but it fell through and the person wasn't home and I wasn't sure what we should do because it was too late to go very far, but I felt like I had already talked to just about everyone in the area we were in, but we prayed and felt like we needed to stay close so we started walking and we found a family who had just moved there about a week ago and they are super religious and super interested in the church! It was such a huge miracle! The Lord is preparing people and He will lead us to them if we let Him.

Sunday was super powerful as well. I had the opportunity to do a musical number on the piano and then we had an investigator in church and the classes were so inspired and so amazing! The investigator in church was Caroline. She was the elders' investigator but they recently passed her over to us so we've been working with her and she's progressing a lot! We're hoping that she'll be baptized this Saturday, so please pray for her so that everything goes well and that she can be baptized! :)

Thanks for all of the pictures and for all of your love and support!!!! I love you all so so very much and hope you have a wonderful week!!!

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~Hermana Allan

October 17, 2016 - He Knows Us

With a previous companion, Hermana Melgar

Hello family!!!! Wow, this week was full of fire! We found new people like crazy! It really was so incredible how many times we were lead right to people who needed us in that very moment and that have been so prepared to receive the góspel. We met this one lady named J. and she really has been through so much in her life. She's passed through some super difficult trials but is so willing to turn to the Lord and keep pushing forward. Our lessons with her have been so full of the Spirit and I think for the first time she's finally recognizing how much the Lord loves her. It's been incredible and I can't wait till she can be baptized and receive the fulness of the góspel.

Also, on Wednesday, we had MLC and it was absolutely wonderful. I learned so much! We first started talking about our studies and how to make them more effective and something I learned is that like it says in the scriptures we have to be agents and act and not wait to be acted upon so when we study we need to take a question into the scriptures. A lot of times we read the scriptures hoping that something will stick out to us or some sort of revelation will come, but it doesn't work that way. We have to take a question into the scriptures to be able to find new things and receive new revelation. I've made it a more conscious goal to have a question in mind during every study and wow, pero wow. My studies have changed so much and I just love them even more than before! If we truly seek inspiration and revelation and act as agents, we'll find what we're looking for and the mysteries of God will be revealed to us.

Also we talked a lot about the Atonement and I'm just overwhelmed with gratitude for the Atonement of Jesus Christ. The changes I've been able to see in my own life and the lives of others are absolutely incredible and I know that it is only posible through our Savior, Jesus Christ. Through Him, nothing is imposible. We can change. We can improve. We can become more like Him. There is nothing we can't do when we have our faith and trust in Him. In the end, the ultimate goal is to be more like our Savior. At the judgment day we won't be judged with a list of all the good and bad we did in life, but we'll be judged for how Christ-like we've become and how much we've dedicated our lives to Him. And it's only through the Atonement of Jesus Christ that we can become more Christ-like and become who He wants us to be.

Thank you for sending my byu information! I'm going to attempt to figure out my clases so that it'll all be ready for registration for you guys. Thanks so much for doing it! :) 

Thank you and dad so much for your spiritual thoughts!!! I love you guys!

I love you all so so very much and hope you have an absolutely wonderful week!!!!

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~Hermana Allan