All my family,
What a great week! Here are some highlights:
-There is a little Latino kid in the ward named Jonathin. He looks exactly like a Latino Eto. Same mannerisms, voice, facial expressions, clothes, everything. It made me smile and I like to talk to him because it is like having Eto here.
-I failed to mention in my last email that included in our area is Disneyworld, Universal Studios, SeaWorld, and International Boulevard. Haha PARTY IN WINDY RIDGE!!! ...Except we don't actually go to any of those places, except International. It is fun to say though! I am going to know exactly how to get to those places when we all go to Florida. :)
-Thank you for the package, mom. We loved it. It was a little taste of Fall in Autumn-less Florida. :)
-People think my Spanish is a riot. Haha the members love to listen to me try to talk. Sometimes, it drives me nuts, but we all laugh. Also, I was talking to someone and they asked if I was from Brazil. We laughed about that for a while. I am glad that if I have a foreigner accent, at least it isn't Gringo. :) People also think I am from Argentina, which is funny.
-My country list is well into the thirties. Some highlights: Uzbekistan, Malaysia, and Iraq.
-Again, I would like to reemphasize that I love giving referrals. Spanish work is a little different from regular work. We give referrals to all the English missionaries covering our area as well as any YSA aged investigators to the YSA sisters and Haitian/Portuguese people to their assigned missionaries. Since we don't know where all of these people are, we all work together to find them and get them where they need to be. Mom, you mentioned that you read Sister Good's blog. I love her! She is one of the English missionaries in our area. One day, we had a very successful day and gave 5 referrals to Sister Good and her companion. During our district meeting, we were all asked to share a miracle that happened that week. Sister Good said that they had tracted all day with no success for themselves, and it was a miracle that we called them with 5 referrals that night. I love to be that blessing to other missionaries. Honestly, it doesn't matter to me. We are all just trying to help people. I love telling the people we talk to that we can send other missionaries to them. It is just fun to work together.
-I have been having a bit of an attitude problem lately. Haha it has just been difficult to get through days, and I am always looking forward to the end of the day. I decided that needed to change, and one morning I read a talk on gratitude. I have thought about this before, but I decided to implement it this time! I opened my notebook and started to write a gratitude list. Now, when you get asked to write something like that, you always start with the things you feel obligated to be thankful for: the Church, Jesus Christ, the Book of Mormon, family, etc. This time, I decided that I wouldn't do that - I would just do whatever I was genuinely thankful for. It started out with 'largatijas' (spanish for lizards). I listed things like Magic Erasers, my watch, fluffy clouds, and my favorite black pen. I kept going and going. Eventually, of course, my list came to include Jesus Christ, the Atonement, my family, and the Book of Mormon. But I wrote them when they came to me, and I sincerely felt gratitude for each when I wrote them. In one of the Mormon Messages we share, Elder Uchtdorf says something along the lines of, "Diligently doing the things that matter most will lead us to the Savior of the world." I think this is true in gratitude as well! Writing the things that I was truly grateful for, even the very small things, eventually led me to the Savior. My challenge this week is to write a real gratitude list, with things you really feel, not the things that you should be grateful for. They might end up being the same in the long run. :) Anyway, my list ended up being 131 items long (and I have added more since!). The rest of that day was awesome. I felt so much happier, and we taught two people contacting, which doesn't happen often. It was such a miracle to see the change that happened from something so simple. It was my favorite part of the week.
-I know that Christ lives, and that it is His life and His love that changes souls. I like to do my best to feel that love and have it show when I talk to people. That is what gets them to open up and accept Him. I love you all too - have a great week!
-Hna. Allred
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