"You know, I don't know that much Spanish. I don't have a perfect testimony of everything. I am only 19. I get proud. I get discouraged. I get impatient. I have problems. But the God of heaven and His glorious Son appeared to a fourteen-year-old boy with problems in the woods in New York. The creator of the entire universe answered a humble prayer of a boy with miracles that resulted in the restoration of His gospel. I am young, and I am not perfect, but that doesn't mean that God doesn't want me or that He can't use me. There is a scripture in the Doctrine and Covenants that goes something like this: 'And by the weak things of the earth shall I thrash the nations by the power of my Spirit.' I love that verse. We are weak, but He is able. Even though the missionary force is very young and not perfect, the Lord will continue to thrash the nations. To bring them to repentance. To help them receive the blessings of His gospel.
I am so thankful to be a part of this miracle."

Friday, July 5, 2013

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
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