Week the final

It has been another great week here at the CCM!!  Here are some interesting things that have happened:

A) This week, Elder W is in our district because he has to stay here extra on account of his surgery.  We talked about you, mom, and he said we looked nothing alike but sounded exactly the same.  Haha that was the first time I had heard that!  He thought you were the best and we laughed that you made him and his mom read my email.... I was slightly embarrassed. :)

B) On Wednesday, we got to "host."  That means we are the people who take all the new missionaries to pick up their stuff, find their residences, and get to their classrooms.  I got to host a sister named Sister Black.  She was from Virginia and going to San Jose, California.  It was fun because she drove up with Ashlyn Parkinson, one of my friends from high school.  It was fun to see her and say hello. :)  But as part of hosting, we sat on the curb waiting for people and it was absolutely heartbreaking to see everyone saying goodbye.  Haha a couple of us started tearing up even...... How embarrassing. haha

C) Yesterday was "in-field training."  They told us how to work with members, contact in airports and on buses, things like that.  It made us all pretty excited for the field!!  My compañeras were laughing at me because I was all excited to talk to people who hadn´t heard of the church.... Hurray for Utah kids!! :)

D) Our district is doing a musical number in our little branch sacrament meeting on Sunday.  It is Come Thou Fount in Spanish: Fuente de Mi Bendiciones.  One of the translations in Spanish for fuente is 'source.'  That gave a whole new meaning to the song for me!  "Source of my Blessings."  That is something cool about learning two languages - you get slightly different meanings from both that helps you understand what it is really trying to say.  Anyway, I am playing the piano for it and it is fun to be doing that.  It is so beautiful in Spanish.

I can't believe that it is almost time to be done with the MTC forever; it is pretty sad!  Here are some things, after my five weeks of experience, that I am going to miss:

I am going to miss my district, especially mis hermanas.  Being with people for 12-24 hours a day really fosters some good friendships, and I hope to keep in touch with them during my mission.

I am going to miss the cafeteria!!  Mom, don't freak out, but yesterday I had a big ole' meal and then three bowls of Captain Crunch.  Haha that is the life!!!  I am not ready to go back to living on pizza rolls, peaches and cream, and quesadillas.... :)

I am going to miss my teachers.  We talked about it in our room, and we decided that one of the big reasons that we are here in the Provo MTC instead of the Mexico one and Intermediate Spanish instead of beginning is so we could have Hermano Snyder.  He has really changed the way I think about missionary work, commitments, diligence, and life.  I hope that I can live up to the things I have learned here!  It is pretty cool to see the hand of God leading me to exactly here in this district right now.

I am going to miss learning other languages.  Haha right now I can say a token phrase in Mandarin Chinese, Russian, Korean, German, Portuguese, Japanese, and "datamachine" in Norweigan. ;)  It is fun to have all that diversity here.  Stratz vo scher!  (Hi in Russian)

I am going to miss the cream soda tree.  Haha have I talked enough about that already?  I love it.

I am going to miss the Utah mountains.  It is like I haven't left home yet, but now I have to.  Goodbye Rockies, hello Gulf of Mexico!

I am going to miss the devotionals.  We have heard from Janice Kapp Perry, the lady on Channel 5 news, President Hinckley's son, etc.  They have all been so uplifting, and it is fun to be here so immersed in the missionary spirit!

I am going to miss a lot of things, but at the same time I am grateful for so many.  This week, our teacher asked us what the main thing is that we have learned here at the MTC.  I replied without much hesitation that I have learned so much about my Savior.  Everything that has happened to me here has pointed me to Him.  As I wrote yesterday in my notes, "This work isn't about people, lessons, missionaries, people, even the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith, or any of that.  It is about the Savior, Jesus Christ, the Gentle Creator of the Universe, and His work of salvation.  Everything else is a subdivision of that noble cause.  We, through all ages of time, are simply and solely His disciples."  Mom, I love what you said in your letter about the legacy we have in the church for doing hard things.  We have talked alot about the pioneers with it being July, and their faith and strength inspires me to be faithful and strong in my sphere.  I love the unity that comes from this work - knowing that we are united with sould throughout all time trying to serve the Lord.  He is mighty so save us all.  He saved me, and now He can use me to save His friends in Orlando.  I am grateful for my stronger testimony of who He is, because when it is strong it cannot be hidden by bad Spanish or a nervous approach.  My other weaknesses can be outshined by my love for the Savior.

We talked yesterday about the power aspect of faith.  With my call as a missionary, I am entitled to call down the power of heaven in testifying of the truth.  I have nothing to fear if I trust in those powers of the heavens! What a blessing to be a part of this one true, powerful work!

Here are a couple of experiences for you all:  I don't know if I have said this before, but we get to think of investigators to be for role-playing here.  Since my pool of non-members is limited, I am almost always Nonnie, Grammy, or Poppy.  I have been able to think of their great faith and wonderful stories, and it is fun to talk about my "daughter in Utah who is a Mormon,"  or my "three little girls."  I am grateful for their examples.  It is the Spirit of Elijah manifesting itself yet again!  I have a testimony of that.  The love that comes through that spirit when we learn of our ancestors.  I loved that about mom's letter too - and thanks for sending Frieda's story!  That is my challenge for this week:  Please, everyone in the family, read at least 5 pages from one of Grandma's books, and talk about the stories at dinner on some Sunday.  I still remember that one time when we talked about that girl falling in the sick stable pit... haha it is a memory I enjoy.  I again testify that this Spirit of Elijah not only increases our love for our predecesors, but also our awareness of the influence they have in our lives.  It literally thins the veil.  The closest I have been to the divine is having a strong assurance and knowledge that those I have read about are with me on and before my mission.  There are times when I have felt them, been comforted and supported by them, and rejoiced with them.  It seems miraculous, but as Moroni says, has God ceased to be a God of miracles?  I know that you can all feel this presence and comfort in your lives.  There are angels in these days, and more than just the mortal angels around us.  There are truly spirits who watch over us and help us with the Divine Work, I know it.  Have fun gaining a testimony of that!

This week, we were challenged to commit an investigator we had never met before to live the law of the fast.  Haha of all the commandments!!  It was such a good experience for us though.  My testimony of fasting was strengthened, and I realized that all of God's commandments can be applied to His children to help them with specific things in their lives.  It is amazing to see what will touch people and how they are motivated to change.

Here is another awesome experience that happened to me.  Maybe I have told it to you already; I can't remember.  But a few weeks ago, we were teaching lessons to another district of all Elders in our zone.  We were teaching them as themselves, not as investigators.  So as a companionship we started teaching Elder Palau.  He is a huge Polynesian who is very happy and friendly and has a football scholarship to BYU, even though he just graduated.  Anyway, we were teaching him something about faith from the scriptures, and he was sharing with us an experience about faith in his life.  As he was talking, I started to feel such a pure love for Him, and I felt very prompted to share it.  As I opened my mouth, I was full of the charity of God for Elder Palau.  Even though I didn't know him, I testified strongly of the love that God had for him.  It filled my whole body, yet it didn't stem from me.  It came from heaven and flowed through me.  I felt the Spirit so strongly after that, and was amazed at the experience.  That is the power of a missionary  call!!  I was feeling a little insecure, and I think a big part of that experience was to show me that I was capable and clean enough to be a pure vessel for His work.  Everyone was so uplifted and it was so powerful.

Well, family, on Monday I will be wandering around in the palm trees!  The Berry's seem like great people.  I absolutely loved all of my letters this week - I am so overwhelmed and blessed that I have such family and friends that reading their letters is like reading scripture.  I have been so uplifted by the testimonies at home.  Please keep sharing your thoughts with me.  Boys, I miss you.  Please email me or send me a letter sometime.  :)  Hopefully I will talk to you on Monday!!

Here is a little Spanish for fun:  Tengo un testimonio de Jesucristo, el Dios de Israel.  Sé que Él vive y habla con su pueblo!  Que fantástico que tengamos su verdad y el gozo que venga mediante esta.  Estoy emocionada y agradecida por la opurtunidad que tengo a enseñar estas buenas noticias a todo el mundo, espicificamente Orlando.  Esta obra es de Dios, y me encanta.  En el nombre de Jesucristo, mi Salvador, Amen.

All my love,

Hermana Kara Allred

One Month!

Mom, Dad, Tyler, Brandon, Bryson, Alyssa, Ethan, and Ashlyn,

I love you all!!!!!!!!!

First off, I totally forgot to send something for Bryson's talk.... please don't kill me haha.  Did he give it already?  Could you use anything for the last email?  The theme is just missionary work?  I will try to say something in here for him.

  

This week has been pretty good!  On Sunday, me and Hna. Smith were called as the "Sister Training Leaders" (Hna. Nelson is the music chair).  That is kind of like a zone leader for sisters.  ..... but don't be too impressed, because there are only 9 sisters in our zone, and 4 of them are leaving for Guatemala on Monday.  Also this week, our trio was chosen for a little first-day training activity.  On the first day, you have a workshop where you go to meet with "investigators" with a huge class of new missionaries.  They let some other MTC missionaries do a 'how to begin teaching' demo (knock on the door, get inside, get to know the person, bring up the gospel), and then they turn it over to the new missionaries to practice.  So we got to be those missionaries that come in and do the demo!  It was kind of cool because they only let like 12 companionships do that a week.

I finally have met Orlando missionaries!!!!!!  There are a ton of English speaking ones, including Elder Whittaker from high school (I don't think you would know him).  Anyway, I am excited to get my travel plans today and at least I know I won't be alone on my flight!  :)  The sisters going there are very nice. :)

Maybe Bryson can use this in his talk if he hasn't given it.  I found out the reason why a mission is so hard!!  Don't get me wrong, I have loved it here.  But I won't lie -- It has also been the hardest thing ever.  And I think that that is necessary because our purpose as missionaries is to "invite others to come to Christ."  We can't do that unless we ourselves are as close to the Savior as we possibly can be.  I think the times we get closest to the Savior are those times when we feel so down; like there is no one else to turn to.  It is in those moments that we rely wholy on the Lord and come to know of His true character.  When we experience that humility and love, we can be molded into who He wants us to be.  We can let the Spirit guide our thoughts, questions, and words.  Also, we develop a burning, deep, and abiding testimony of the Atonement that will shine from our faces when we testify of its reality.  That is something that has really been becoming part of my person. I am discovering new facets of the Atonement every day, and my testimony gets deeper and deeper.  It is a wonderful thing!  I know that the power of the Atonement can save us from anything.  It saves us from sadnesses, annoyances, angers, regrets, guilt, sin, and depression.  We just need to trust Him enough to give it all to Him.  And what a release that is!!  He is the Healer, and I am excited to share that message of hope, relief, and healing to all the people I meet!!

Ready for my weekly challenge?  We watched a talk that Elder Bednar gave at the MTC a couple of weeks ago.  It was a lot like the things he said in his book and to us last summer.  He challenges us to get to know the character of Christ.  I have started a list in my personal study time that I write a characteristic of Christ that I have read about or experienced (e.g. "He is the Savior, He is the Perfect Friend, He loves me").  Underneath that, I write a couple of quick sentences saying how that applies to me or what I know about it.  I challenge you all to start a list, just add one a day or a couple a week.  It keeps your thoughts on the Savior and helps you to really understand who He is.  Getting to love Him is just like getting to love anyone else - you have to get to know Him first.  Good luck!  Maybe one of these days I will send you some of my list. :)

Missionary work is awesome.  We really have the best teachers in the MTC.  Hno. Snyder said that on his mission he literally ran from appointment to appointment...... I laughed and rolled my eyes because that is exactly what Silas is doing.  Anyway, we feel the Spirit so much every day. 

I had a gift of tongues experience this week!!  I always experience the gift because I am actually learning Spanish, but this was special.  We were doing TRC, where you teach a real member.  We were teaching Richard, who we actually taught last week too.  He is a student at BYU and his wife is expecting their first baby in a couple of weeks (we freaked out because we are children deprived).  Throughout the whole lesson, I could say exactly what I wanted to say with ease!!  It wasn't perfect Spanish, but I wasn't thinking about Spanish, which is probably the hardest thing to do.  It was awesome!!  Spanish is not a barrier to the Spirit - when you teach with your heart, the investigator will understand the message.  However, it can be hard to not let Spanish become a distraction that takes you away from the Spirit.  That is something that can be hard for me, because I try so hard to remember the words and grammar to talk that that is where my focus is.  But the work is good, and all blessings will come with time!

  

Anyway, I love you all so so much.  Please keep praying for me; I always pray for you.  Thanks for being examples to me and for teaching me to do what is right.  I will try to send some pictures now, and see you soon! ;)

Love love love, Hna. Allred

Another awesome yet strange week

Dear Mom, Dad, Tyler, Brandon, Bryson, Alyssa, Ethan, and Ashlyn:

 

I LOVE THIS MISSION THING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Really, I am so so happy here.  Sometimes when I am taking my shower, I just think, "Wow.  I love this.  This is the best thing in the world."  I think that most of the time..... except for at 6:30 in the morning. ;)  But I have been even doing ok with that!!!  Let me tell you all some things I love about the MTC (or CCM, in Spanish):

 

I love the girls in my room.  They are all so wonderful, and we are becoming great friends.

 

I love my district.  They are so mature but fun and we always have wonderful experiences together.

 

I love the girls in my zone.  We laugh together, brush our teeth together, eat together.... they are so awesome.

 

I love my classes.  We have had a few substitutes in our class, and it is easy to see that we lucked out with the best teachers in the MTC.  They bring the Spirit so much and I am learning a ton.

 

I love learning about missionary work.  I have such a better knowledge of challenging, baptizing, the lessons, and how those things help others come to Christ.  Dad, I remember talking with you and Mom about if it was hard for your investigators to consent to pay tithing.  You said, "You ask them if they want to have the windows of heaven opened to them and pour blessings on them that they won't have room to receive them, and how can they say no?"  That is exactly how they teach us here at the MTC.  We aren't asking people to make sacrifices, we are asking them to give up certain things for marvelous blessings that they can't even comprehend.  Our teacher is big into challenging investigators to baptism, every time.  I was skeptical at first, but now I do it every time.  An invitation made in love will never be taken offensively.  I really just want everyone to experience the cleansing and enabling power of baptism into the Lord's church.

 

I [love] learning Spanish.  Haha.  I still am not really good at it, but the Spirit will testify of truth, even in broken Spanish.  I have had experiences with that.  It is powerful.  Speaking of languages, I love playing 'guess the language' looking at missionaries' tags.  I guessed Thai for a few Elders and a Sister, and told them I always wanted to go to southeast Asia.

 

I love the food!!  You can get a wrap, the entres they are serving, make yourself a sandwich (the 24-hour PB&J bar lives on, Dad!), cereal, icecream, fruit, chocolate milk, you name it!!  Yesterday I had a burger  in honor of Independence Day, and made myself a rootbeer float using the icecream from the middle of an icecream sandwich.  It was awesome.

 

I honestly love everything.  Ok, Mom, you are going to love this part of my email.  Why?  Because it is full of stories you can tell everyone. :)

 

My week has been..... strange? Awkward? Out of the ordinary?  Haha still awesome, but full of random stuff.  For example:

  

Awkward moment number three of Monday:  Me and Hna. Nelson were prepping for one of our investigators, and a photographer man and his assistant popped in and asked if he could take a picture of our companionship.  We were like, "Um, sure!" so he snapped it and then left.  Later that day, this girl in my zone told me that the photo man was looking for me and wanted me to do a photoshoot with them on Tuesday.  Haha what is life?!  So eventually they got ahold of me and this girl from a Japanese district, and on Tuesday afternoon we tromped down to a chapel to have this weirdie photo shoot for two hours.  Haha two other girls in my zone did it as well, but in the morning.  I thought that maybe I would pop in with my change of outfits, pretend to hand out a passalong card and be done with it, but it was the biggest production ever.  They handed us over to this make-up/hair lady who totally did all of our make-up and our hair, then they brought in a British wardrobe lady who gave me this sweet pink blazer to wear, then they sat us down at these computers and had us take pictures for like 40 minutes.  Apparently they are trying to get pictures to tell people about the new rules with computers and technology.  So if you see a girl on a church website with awesome hair and a pink blazer at a computer, it is probably me.  Haha so strange.

 

Wednesday, one of the teachers came up to me and said, "You are on the Elder Bednar video!  And that was your little brother, huh?"  Haha it was fun.  Everyone loves Bryson's thing, and apparently we really look alike because everyone knows we are related.  Strange.

 

Yesterday was so so so awesome, but strange for the MTC!  We had a normal day (I obviously wore red white and blue), but then after dinner we had a "Patriotic Fireside."  We thought that might have meant that Mitt Romney was going to talk to us (we thought we were pretty funny with that one), but what that actually means is a musical number, a 7-minute speaker, and then we got to watch 17 miracles!!!!!!!!!!!  Hahaha it was so exciting.  Then they gave us icecream and let us stay up until the fireworks were done. :) :)  I loved it, and it helped keep my mind off everything I was missing at home.  Hope your fourth was great!!

 

 

I LOVE YOU ALL!!!! BEING A MISSIONARY IS AWESOME!!!!

 

All my love,

 

Hermana Allred