The Windows of Heaven

Mom, Dad, "Elder Allred," Brandon, Bryson, Alyssa, Ethan, and 7-year-old-Ash:

Haha me and Sister Brooks have been laughing all morning about North Korea.  Just yesterday I was talking about Tyler all proud to my district leader, that he was going on a mission but wanted to be sure he was ready first and doing it for the right reasons.  Then I read the mission call story this morning and died.  Haha we have enjoyed that.  How many likes did you get?!

Speaking of Facebook, I need your help!!!  I have definitely caught the vision of Internet Proselyting lately - I love it!!!!  We have been trying to find groups to join of some interests we have so we can post/comment and start talking to people.  I have joined a couple of Book-lovers groups and posted about one of my favorite books - the Book of Mormon. :)  I also did some browsing to find a pin-collector group, and basically the only worthwhile one I found was an Olympic Pin collector group.  So I have a fantastic idea- but I need your help at home!  I will turn you into online missionaries too! :)  I took a picture of all the little pins I have collected here (....... did I tell you I have been collecting pins?) - most of them are from Boyd's LDS Bookstore and are like the Orlando Temple or tiny golden plates or angel Moroni or whatnot (Sister Boyd loves me and always tells me when they get new pins .... probably because I always buy them!).  So I want to post that picture on this page and talk about why I like collecting pins and how I really like my pins with religious significance because they are a tiny reminder of what I believe and what I stand for.  But I can't just post this church-pin thing out of the blue in the Olympic Pin Collector page - So I need you to take a nice picture of all/the best of the Olympic pins I have in my collection and send it to me!  Then I can post them both together and it won't be as awkward.  Hopefully I can start talking to someone that way.  Another assignment, my online minions!  Will you please start looking for facebook groups/pages that would be good for me to join?  Any interests I have or things that I might like or that would be easy to post about the gospel in.  For example.  Some missionaries joined a buy/sell/trade page in Orlando and posted that they were giving out Book of Mormons for free.  They found a waaaay less-active family who wants to be taught again through that!  Anything like that.  And Spanish would be best, but is not a requirement. :)  Thanks!

Along with that, we LOVE the mormon.org profiles lately.  I want to challenge you all to make one!  Be real.  Be funny, if you are funny (and you all are).  I took some time to fix mine lately.  It is such a great resource and tool for missionary work.  Who knows, maybe there is some 15 year old who loves soccer and DBZ who will find Brandon's profile and think that maybe he can be a Mormon too!  So cool.  Good luck. :)

Also, Brandon, I don't know if I answered this before, but we can't be facebook friends because they want us to be focused here.  But I have another assignment!  I want you all to look through your friends and see if there is someone you can share a gospel message with - either a mormon message or a scripture or a meme from 'the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints' or 'mormon.org' facebook pages.  Haha are you sick of my assignments yet?! Also, if there is someone who wants the discussions online, you can tell me and we can be friends on facebook and teach them - no matter where they live!

I titled my email this week, "the Windows of Heaven."  That is how I feel about what has happened to us lately.  In Malachi, it says that when we pay tithing we will receive blessings from the Lord that are so great that we won't have room to receive all of them!  Me and Sister Brooks have seen that so much lately.  The standard of excellence for our mission is to find 2 new Investigators every week.  That has been a struggle on my mission - especially because (or I thought, at least) we are looking for Latino people.  This month our district has been ON FIRE with finding investigators.  I am convinced it was because we set an inspired goal at the beginning of the month to find 30 new investigators as a district.  This month, me and Sister Brooks alone have found 18 - and the rest of the district has been having similar success.  This week, we were blessed with 10 new people to teach.  10 new souls that have the opportunity to choose eternal life and a life of happiness here.  I think that is the coolest thing ever.  Let me tell you.  The Lord is hastening His work.  The missionaries are stepping it up.  The members are stepping it up.  The ward council is stepping it up.  And we are seeing the miracles pour out of the windows of heaven - we can hardly receive it all!

The most promising investigators we have right now are A, M, and A.  They are member referrals.  Al is the son of A and M.  They are amazing, and came to church yesterday.  Keep them in your prayers!  They are Cubanos and have been searching for peace their whole lives and haven't been able to find it.  We promised them that their search would soon come to a close. :)  

Here is a miracle with one of the new investigators this week.  Last night, we were one member-present lesson short of our district goal.  We had only one lesson planned for the rest of the evening, and that was with a member family at our dinner appointment.  On our way their, we received a phone call telling us that maybe we would want to do the Restoration at dinner - because the husband of one of the family members was not a member!  We had already planned to teach the Restoration through revelation ( :) ), so we were stoked!  We got there and talked to Michael's wife.  She said he wanted to take her to the temple and get baptized.  He was at all 3 hours of church today.  We taught a wonderful 1st lesson with the whole family and are teaching them again this week.  He will get baptized so soon.  And we miraculously hit our district member-present lesson goal. 

Our talks went absolutely great yesterday, maybe because it was Ash's birthday. ;)  It was one of the stronger experiences I have had with the gift of tongues.  I went up there with my bullet-pointed list and spoke Spanish sin pensar (without thinking).  I had to ask the Bishop for "inmortal,"  but other than that the conjugation and vocabulary flowed like it never has before.  I can speak fine, but rarely without some thought on how I should say it.  The Lord loosened my tongue so I could speak His words.  I was so nervous before, but felt that heart-pounding feeling right before that is the Lord's way of telling me that what I am about to say is from Him - that He wants me to open my mouth.  It was great.  Everyone felt the Spirit of missionary work in that meeting from the 3 talks - and one of the young women leaders commented that a young woman who hadn't really been interested in a mission before came and said she wanted to serve.  I know that He took over for us in our talks.  It was amazing.

I cannot believe everything the Lord is doing for us lately.  I had one of the happiest moments on my mission this week.  Me and Sister Brooks were just walking through a trailer park on our way to an appointment when it started to rain.  Like, really rain.  Florida rain. :)  I could not be happier to be a missionary than I was at that moment.  We were soaked to the skin but had a fire inside of the gospel.  We talked to someone and he commented that we were like a ray of sunshine in the rainy day.  I loved showing up to the women's conference that night, with hair slicked-down from the rain, a nametag, and a huge smile.  I was so proud to be a missionary.  There is nowhere in the world I should be but here.  It makes me happy.  Simple, missionary moments make me happy.  You make me happy too! :)  Have the greatest week. :)


Love, Sister Kara Allred

*Kara recieved this email today from one of her high school friends who is on a mission.

Sister Allred,

We downloaded our online training manuals and I was looking through it and saw this picture.  I think you may be famous!

"

Here is an excerpt from her letter dated July 5, 2013 relating to this very experience:

'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.'

That's my girl, the online missionary training manual model.  So funny!

My name is Hermana Allred-I am a happy missionary, a geography lover, 9 months old, and I'm a Mormon!

I am going to just apologize right off the bat for any
spelling/grammatical errors that may follow. I am plunking this out on
my iPad in the library, so who knows what will fumble out!  Bear with
me.

I am so happy these days!!! And I will tell you one reason why: I have
been praying for charity.  One of the blessings that comes from those
prayers really is an increased happiness and purpose. I love it. I
love a mission.

Additionally, I love all Latinos. They are the best.  We have had the
good blessing this week to find neighborhoods that are door-to-door
Latinos. Seriously, almost every house! They as a people are so
friendly and inviting and we have been able to get a TON of return
appointments.  This makes us so happy because it means we get to teach
more!  I love being able to see things I like about both cultures and
decide what I want to adopt into my own life. I also love being able
to communicate with these people that I couldn't before.  Boys, I know
you are obsessed with Japanese, but HOW COOL IS SPANISH?! I can now
communicate with almost half of the geographical world! Plus, there are
people all around here who speak Spanish. It opens the door to
millions of new friends I can have and new people I can help bring to
Christ. :) love it.

This week we have continued to teach G, M, and F.
Also, we started teaching N and A. Ju and H are also
still in our teaching pool. We were also able to find a lady named
Y, teach her a lesson, and set a baptismal date with her! Hopefully
we will see that happen in April. Things are looking great and we are
finding new people every day!!

Here is something I have been thinking about this week.  The more I go
through life and the more I learn about God and how His plan works,
the more I realize that life is less about what happens to us, but is
about who we are.  The more I think, the less I believe that heaven
will be this wonderful place where everything goes perfectly and all
these things that have been driving us nuts here will finally
disappear.  Rather, I just think that we will be the kind of people
who won't be bothered by things.  We will have developed a strength
and a happiness that is so deep that it stands independent of
everything.  Heaven will still be a lot better than here, but
additionally we will be a lot better than we are now.  I want to
strive to be that kind of person.  One who is ready to die because
they have developed into an independently happy person.  Fascinating.
Love it.

Ty, I found a talk for you this week. It is called 'Securing our
Testimonies' from the October 2004 conference.  I will keep looking
for you!

I think I told you this last week, but I am speaking in sacrament this
week on Ash's birthday.  I am actually really excited for this.  Maybe
I already said this, but for me giving a talk is like taking the ACT
or doing a huge school project. I act like I hate it and it does
stress me out, but deep down I love it.  I guess it just puts my
testimony to the test and helps me deepen my reservoir of
understanding.  Fun stuff.

I have been just obsessed lately with learning (shocker). Haha that is
a love that has grown my entire life and doesn't cease! I am learning
all the time out here - about everything! I love studying the
scriptures and Preach My Gospel. I love deepening my understanding. I
also love using that understanding not in my words, but in the
conviction that comes from my heart. We acquire all this crazy
revelation and spiritual knowledge, but a lot of time others don't
need to hear all of that. They just need to feel the Spirit that comes
when you are speaking on simple topics - the Spirit that comes more
strongly because your personal testimony went a couple levels more
profoundly into your heart. I want to do this with every aspect of my
life.

Well family, I love you to pieces, but I sure hope next week I have a
Computer because my eyeballs just might fizzle out of my head
(familiar phrase, anyone?). :) missionary life is the best. This areas
the best. This mission is the best!! I love you and will talk to you
soon!

Con cariño, Hermana Allred

P.s. Yes, I am a big old halfway out lady. WHAT HAPPENED?!

If Ye Had the Chance to be a Missionary....would Ye?

Haha me and Sister Brooks have been using the old "would ye" joke like crazy.  It is especially appropriate for this lucky Irish day, I suppose.

Mom, I am going to address this right off the bat lest we have another 'bone' to pick. :)  I loved the package!!!!!!!!!! I was itching for the mail all week and was so excited to see pictures and laugh and eat sour nerds and mint M&M's.  You are the best.  And please thank Aunt Sarah for me, I have already been rubbing the rock like crazy. :)  I have the three gnome/hobbit/onedirection wig picture and the Les Mis family picture ready to hang up by my bed.  Classic. 

 ...if ye had the chance to send a hobbit to yer missionary....... would ye?  

(Sidenote:  this needs to be said in an Irish accent, like from the movie Brave, it is a family joke :))

This has been such a happy week.  I have been doing so well.  Things really are just the best.  The investigator family that we met on Lindsey's wedding day is the coolest family of all time.  We actually ran into the wife, M, working during the week on accident!!  It was awesome.  We were able to meet with G. (dad) and F. (mother-in-law) on Tuesday, and then on Friday we went back to teach the whole family.  They loved the Plan of Salvation, and the Spirit is always present when we teach them.  G. said to us on Friday, "You know, you have been telling me to read the Book of Mormon and I keep saying 'Sure, yeah, I will...' but it hasn't been something important.  But now, I feel something telling me, "Do it. Ask about it."  And so I will.  I really will."  We are so excited to talk to him this week about how it went.  We are teaching M. and F. tonight (they have opposite work schedules, so we can only meet with them all together on M's days off).  They weren't able to come to church yesterday, but please pray for them that we can help them progress and get a baptismal date this week.  They are the best.  It makes me so happy to be teaching a family.  It makes all the hard things worth it. :)

We are also teaching J, a single father from Mexico.  He has several doubts about baptism that we have been able to find out about and address, but please pray for him too that he can have the desires and the knowledge he needs to come to church and be baptized.  Thanks!!

.....If ye had the chance to pray for some Latino Floridians....... would ye?

LIFE IS THE BEST!!!  Sometimes, I just get so excited to be the best person ever and know everything and do good things all the time.  It will happen someday, but we can always start today! :)

We are constantly finding people who need us.  A lot of time, they speak English and we pass them on, but we are fortunate to be the answer to a lot of people's prayers.  It is cool to see.  Some people are mean and don't like us and don't want anything to do with us, but then their next-door neighbor will almost be in tears because they are so grateful and in awe that we came.  I guess that's how life is.  Not all of life is going to boost you up and appreciate you and tell you 'good job' or 'keep going,' but it is all worth it for the moments that do.  The moments when you are someone's angel.  

I read something in 1 Nephi that I liked this morning.  It was from Isaiah, and said (paraphrasing), "In the shadow of thy hand, thou madest me a polished shaft and put me in your quiver."  I loved that image - The Lord in all His knowledge and majesty being in charge- holding the bow, wearing the quiver, seeing the target.  In the shadow of our adversity, we become polished and straight - able to do the work of the Lord.  We become worthy and righteous and willing.  He then takes us and puts all His arrows in the quiver and waits for the right moment - where He takes us out, aims, and shoots.  All missionaries have a target to reach.  The straighter we are, the surer we fly.  The Lord shoots all His companionships to different targets, but they are all important.  In the end, if we do our best, we will hit the target right on the nose.  And it isn't because of us.  All of the glory will duly go to the Archer.  He provides us with the momentum, the force, the background, and the ability to achieve His righteous goals.  And I love that.  I love being the arrow with my companion and being able to strike right to the core of people with the Spirit and because of the Lord.  It is sad when people know and feel it but then reject it.  But we always know we hit the mark by giving them the choice; that is what we are out here to do.

..... If ye had the chance to be likened to an arrow....... would ye?

I had some great revelation this week, just thinking about life and souls and the Atonement.  I have come to notice that the more I learn about Heavenly Father and His glorious gospel, the more I realize how simple and logical everything is.  Well, in such a profound way. :)  I love the simple truths we have to offer to every chosen member of the House of Israel who is waiting to be found.  His elect are out there and waiting!  Let's talk about one of them, shall we?

His name is M.  M. was baptized back in August.  He is in his early 20's and Mexican.  He was converted in a remarkable way to the gospel, and now he is never looking back!  It takes about 15 minutes to drive from M's house to the church.  Yesterday, he rode his bike.  Not a 7-speed missionary bike, one of those tiny stunt bikes for skate parks.  I think he does that quite often 

because he doesn't have a car.  This week, we are teaching him how to do genealogy so he can get baptized next month for his dad, who passed away last year.  He is excited to get his patriarchal blessing soon.  He is serving in the Young Men's presidency of our ward.  He is preparing to serve a mission.  We are always in awe of his testimony and the things he is going to do.  How cool to be a part of his conversion in such a different way than it is with investigators.  I didn't teach him before or see him be baptized or start in the church, but I can help him to accomplish all of these goals that will affect his life forever and many others.  So cool!  

.......If ye had the chance to ride a neon green stunt bike to church........ would ye?

Family, I love you.  So much.  Thanks for everything, even the nasty Pazookie sibling card (you deceived me with the sibling quote on the back!!!).  You make me smile. :)  Keep going strong in everything; I still pray for you every night!

Love, Sister Kara Allred

p.s. Boys - today I am going to an indoor soccer field with my district called "la liga."  Yep, me playing soccer.  Thought you would like to know. :)

..................................If ye had the chance to run around an indoor soccer field like a chicken with it's head cut off.......... would ye?

Miracles are rolling in!

Thank you all so much for your wonderful letters!  Alyssa: I loved the book so much and I miss you too!!  You are the best family ever. :)

This week has been filled with a lot of hard work and milagros (miracles)!  Me and Sister Brooks have been working hard and seeing a lot of blessings.  Let's talk about some of them!

- First, let's discuss my Spanish.  In school and in the MTC, Spanish was not easy for me.  At all.  I really thought that I just wasn't good at learning a language, that it just wasn't in my skill set.  But out in the field, studying by myself and with a companion, taking suggestions and paying attention and practicing and learning, I have been able to learn so much and very fast.  It really is the gift of tongues.  I mentioned this this week because I have been very comfortable in my Spanish for the last while, but this week in a lesson I was listening to a member share a story and I wondered why she was sharing it in English until I realized that she was in reality speaking Spanish.  I didn't even notice!  Understanding was the hardest thing for me out here that took me the longest, and it is awesome to see the fruits of hard work and faith.  I still have SO much to learn and do in learning this language, but I have come so far with the help of the Lord.  He qualifies who He calls!

-Second, wow.  We had two finding miracles this week.  Last week in our district meeting, our district leader organized a great meeting about finding (tracting) and how we should try to teach when we are talking to people.  At the end of the meeting, he stood up and said, "Thanks for making this meeting so good.  As I was listening to the trainings, I felt inspired to make this district goal for next week - I know that we can all get 72 contacts (the standard of excellence for the mission) during the week and 3 lessons from those contacts."  We all agreed to work on that goal for the next week (which was this week that just ended).  We had a few days before the week actually started, but me and Sister Brooks really tried to apply what we had learned.  We taught lessons on the spot and contacted better and more efficiently.  We felt that we had learned/applied what we needed to from the meeting, but the week of our goal hadn't even started!  So this last week we had to schedule a lot more finding time than we normally would have to contact 72 people.  Saturday was a dicey day to start off with with Lindsey's wedding at all, and I really wanted to have a good attitude, but it was difficult because we had I think 6 hours of the day to just contact people.  We were going and going and had 3 pretty bad ones right close to each other (where they talk for a long time, but aren't interested at all/don't believe in religion).  We were discouraged, but we ended up in the back of an apartment complex decently close to our house.  We knocked on a bunch of doors with very little success, and we had about had it.  We knocked on one and heard someone come to the door, but they didn't answer. We walked down the stairs and were halfway to the next stairwell when we heard the door open.  We came back quickly to find a man looking out of the door with a little girl.  We introduced ourselves, but he quickly stopped us with a "I'm sorry - I don't speak English."  We asked him if he spoke Spanish, and to our elation he said yes!  We re-introduced ourselves and he invited us in.  He said that his name was G. and that he recently moved here from Colombia.  We met his two young daughters and mother-in-law, F, who were all living in the apartment.  We sat down to give one of the best lessons I have been in in my whole mission.  It was a moment that I pictured missionary life being like before I came - They were attentive and excited, with questions and smiles, and they were very excited to receive a Book of Mormon.  We invited G. to be baptized, but I am not sure he quite understood what that would mean so we will have to talk about that again soon.  We are going to meet with them twice this week, one when his wife will be home from work.  It was a miracle to find this family.  We are so excited about them.  Also, yesterday we were doing a last plug for tracting to reach our goal.  We were knocking this neighborhood and about to leave, but Hermana Brooks said we should stay.  The next house we knocked was an incredibly prepared guy named J.  He had just moved here from Connecticut, and knew that we were messengers from God.  I am pretty sure he will get baptized!  We taught him the whole first lesson on his porch and he loved it.  The YSA Elders will start teaching him this week.  Anyway, I loved the inspired goal that our district leader set.  Without it, we would not have put aside so much time and we wouldn't have found these people who were so prepared for the message of the gospel.  BEING A MISSIONARY IS THE BEST!!!!!!!

I really do love it.  The Lord blesses me so much, even when I don't deserve it.  He knows the days that are hard for me, and He understands and blesses me because I try to do my best.  I love the ward here and I love Spanish and I love Preach my Gospel.  I love you too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Have the best week ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love, Hermana Allred

Her old district on P-day

Her new run down apartment in Valencia East

Many many things to write!

I have so many things to write!!!  Let's start.

Dad-  I am so so happy that you found a job that works.  I don't even have words to describe it.  I have been praying and pleading especially hard lately for you to be able to find one, and when I read that you did, I cried.  I am so happy that Heavenly Father answers our prayers.  I love you!

Tyler- Happy Birthday!!!!!!!!!! I hope you got my letter.

Brandon- I hope soccer tryouts went well!!  I enjoyed your missionary story too.

Bryson- Some of my favorite people to teach here have been deacon-aged boys that remind me of you.  There was one named C. in my last area and here there is one named S.  They are both around 13 and kind of quiet, and I think you would be friends with them.  They both like to learn and are good boys.  Just thought I would tell you I guess.

Mom- I am sorry that you had a bone to pick!! Haha I received/loved the package! I like the shirt a lot, though I tuck in the bow tie thing. :)  I also loved the card from the ward!!! I don't recognize some people, which is weird!!! Haha I was showing it to my Sister Trainer Leader and telling her that my brother was the one with a lot of blonde hair in the back, and she was surprised because she thought I was Latino.  Hahahaha I got a kick out of that.  I love you!  And I will write a letter today!  Also, we just got back from Plato's Closet.  Yep, you read that right!  I bought this awesome shirt for the 4th of July (you know me), and also a cute shirt/skirt.  Thought you would enjoy that. :)

So I am here in my new area, Valencia East!!  It is in a new zone.  I am now closer to downtown Orlando and UCF campus.  We still live in the city Orlando, in a funny little duplex that is kind of gross but I also kind of like because it reminds me of the places dad lived in on his mission.  But it is nice to have a yard and a mailbox!  My companion is Sister Brooks.  She is the best!!!!! She came out at the same time as Sister Jackson.  She is from Las Vegas and is so great! We are good friends and we like to work together.  It is going to be a great transfer!!  The ward is awesome, though it is weird to not be in my old ward with my old friends.  But I am starting to make new ones!! They already have given us referrals, and we are contacting a ton of awesome people and learning more how to teach on the spot.  My district is awesome, and I am just so excited and ready to go here!

I have discovered that I am a clean freak.  Like, not a tidy freak, but a clean freak.  I don't mind if things are cluttered, but I do mind if things are dirty.  I spent maybe 45 minutes sweeping/mopping our retro linoleum floor this morning, and I am not done yet! ..... it was so gross.  And I loved doing it.  Dad, you would be so proud. :)

Here is a funny story from this week:  We had just finished teaching a family in the ward, and we decided to talk to their neighbor who was outside.  We start a conversation with him (D. from Greece), and all was fine except our member's tiny dog came up and wanted to play.  Now, "play" used in this context is meant to say, "scratch and bite Sister Allred's feet and never leave."  Hahaha it was so funny because we were all trying to talk about Greece and the Restoration and I was like dancing around because this dog kept biting me with it's tiny teeth and scratching me with it's tiny claws.  And it wouldn't leave!!  Haha it was a classic mission moment, though I was not amused at the time. :)

Here is my cool story from this week.  Yesterday morning, I was stressed and a little anxious about the new ward.  I prayed to feel better and to overcome my anxiety, and then I read 1 Nephi 7.  I also had the thought come into my head to read Dad's letter, which was sitting dutifully on my dresser waiting for Monday.  I opened it up and read about him finding a job, which made me so relieved.  Then as I was getting ready, I was thinking about a song that Sister Brooks has on CD, which talks about the story of Moses and other scripture prophets and how we can apply them to our lives.  After that, I thought about the story I read in Nephi that morning, in particular the verses where it says he prayed to burst the bands, and then they were loosed.  I think that Nephi probably worked hard to loose those bands, and it probably hurt his wrists and took some time.  But Nephi didn't lack faith - he never did.  His prayer was just answered differently.  I thought about my anxiety.  When it comes (in whatever degree), I pray and try to have faith and expect to be delivered.  I expect the bands of panic and fear to burst so I can feel happy and normal again.  When that doesn't happen, I question my faith and think that if I had more, it might have worked.  But what that scripture did for me was teach me that my faith was enough - the answer was just different than I thought.  The Lord loosens the bands enough so I can calm down bit by bit and work through it.  But in the end I am delivered, just the same.  I thought too about Dad.  His bands of unemployment were definitely not burst, but loosened over time.  Not by a lack of faith, just by a different answer.  The bishop asked me to give the spiritual thought at PEC, and I shared those verses and how sometimes as leaders we expect the bands of our problems to burst, but we need to have the patience to grow as the Lord wants us too.  It is so applicable in many ways, and I was grateful for that experience this week.  

I love being a missionary.  In the end, all the bad things fade.  All the tired mornings, all the unfriendly people, all the stress-filled moments and homesick times and failed commitments will fade and all that will remain will be the moments of joy where I was able to help someone smile, help someone feel the Spirit, help someone feel loved, helped someone into the waters of baptism.  I have already seen it happening with my memories.  What a cool thing.  I love it.  And I love you too!

Love, Hermana Allred