"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."

Monday, November 18, 2013

Being a Missionary


I love being a missionary!!!  I am finding that finally I am adjusting more and realizing how to live as a missionary, which is fun.  I am used to missionary and not home life, which makes it easier to work and have fun!

I am learning so very much.  I have the best Sister Training Leaders and District Leader in the world, and we get to learn from them all the time.  Elder Romero (our district leader) really cares about us and is really invested in our success.  He even made a plan with us to call us during a few language studies so he could talk to us in Spanish (he is a Spanish speaking missionary).  I am very grateful for leaders who are willing to help us and lift us up.  It is such a blessing.

Me and Sister Jackson have been super into Preach my Gospel lately.  You can basically find anything you would ever need as a missionary in there.  Someday, I will be so good at all of it!  But until then, I will focus on one thing at a time. :)  I encourage you all to keep reading it as a family.  More people should be familiar with the things it teaches!  So cool.

My Spanish is getting so much better it is crazy.  Speaking doesn't really faze me.  Listening, however, definitely fazes me.  haha I am trying to get better at that, pero iVoy mejorando! (but I am gradually getting better)  It is fun to learn and practice.

We have been trying to get to know and love our members better this week.  Because of these efforts, in Sacrament meeting I really sat there and was so filled with satisfaction, love, and peace with where I am at.  I love Florida.  I love Orlando.  I love our Windermere chapel.  I love the Windy Ridge ward.  It is all so great.  A visiting family came to our ward this week and I was talking to them for a second (poor things, in the Spanish ward!  Good thing it was the primary program.  -side note: I did not actually end up playing the piano-).  They said, "Orlando - that would be a great place to serve!" And I agree.  :)  Especially Spanish Speaking!!!

So you know how we have been working with the A. family?  We were about to drop them because they weren't progressing, but Ed surprised us by agreeing to a date on December 10th!!  .... Haha we are trying to move that to December 8th, which is the actual Sunday, but we were so excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  We will keep you posted on that.

Our schedule for this next week is so full!!!  Haha we are getting so much better at planning.  We plan to have 20 lessons this week, which would be totally the best.  We are excited to be having so many appointments and trying to teach so many people - members, less-active members, and investigators alike!

So we had an awesome story this week!  Yesterday, we finally met with a potential we have been trying to see whose name is H.  He is from Honduras, probably in his 20's, and lives in the complex next to ours with his 'wife' from the Philippines.  We went to see him and taught him the first lesson, the restoration.  It was awesome!!! I get so excited every time I share that beautiful message!  Anyway, we were talking to him about the first vision and he was very excited.  He kept asking, "What else did Jesus say to him?"  We told him about the Book of Mormon.  He said, "Ok, I will read it all.  Probably today."  Hahahaha we about keeled over.  After we said it was 500 pages, he said that he would finish it by our next appointment on Sunday.  He needs to understand a bit more about authority and baptism, but we are so very excited about teaching him!! Please pray for him as he reads this week.

Family, I was thinking about telling you all the story of H, and how I always tell you these super exciting stories and how about 5% of them actually turn into solid investigators or people who get baptized.  But I decided that I will keep telling them to you.  You know why? Because that is missionary life!  Exciting things happen all the time!  Unfortunately, a lot of our miracle experiences end up not working out the way we would like.  But we shake the dust off our feet and look for the next person who needs a miracle!  So even if all the people I talk about don't progress or get baptized, the miracles are still there.  Missionary life isn't all golden investigators, seeing angels, and miraculous conversions.  It is a lot of searching, a lot of hoping, and a lot of not giving up.  But isn't life kind of like that?  It has a lot of miraculous moments that keep us going, but most of it is keeping on keeping on.  One of the things we need to learn is to find more of the moments that keep us going, but moments in the every day things.  Same thing with missionary life here.  And I love it, just like I loved life at home!  :)  Keep finding those things that keep you going. :)

Thanks for writing me and praying for me.  I love you all so much and I laugh so much every time I read a letter from home.  I hope you all have the best week ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Talk to you soon.

Love, Hermana Allred
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