HAPPY FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!!!!!!!!! I hope that the 10th, 8th, 6th, 4th, and 2nd grades were all the best. :) We live right by a school and have talked to a couple moms today sending off/welcoming home their kids for the first day. Oh wait, is it even the first day of school in Utah?? Oh well. Haha.
So my new companion's name is Sister Marsh! She is 21 years old, from a tiny place called Joseph Utah, and has a brother on a mission in Honduras. She is so great. We are having an awesome time. She really likes to contact people and work hard, so we get along great! I am still in Lake Nona and life is good. :) Speaking of transfers, Sister Jackson is my new sister training leader! We are serving in the same ward and we couldn't be more pumped about it. We are still just the greatest of friends. Good times, good times.
Random: I had a dream last night that Tyler wrote me like a 3 page letter. A mom-status letter! Dream on, Sister Allred!
Random II: I bet you didn't know you had a musical prodigy in the family. Oh wait, that would be because I am not a musical prodigy. But somehow I got roped into doing another musical number for zone conference (where half of the mission is getting together to listen to a member of the Seventy). And no, Sister Piano for once is not the accompanist. She is a singer!! What?! I have been having a conniption about it all day. And it is in Spanish! Heaven help me. Heaven help everyone who will be listening!
So this week has been wild! We un-merged the two areas we have been taking care of, which means we are starting again in our little half. The Elders had a lot of people to take care of on the other side, so we had a lot of our efforts focused on that part of the area. Now we get to pay special attention to Lake Nona North again! :) It has been crazy to go from days full of a TON of appointments to almost no one to work with.... but we have been working hard this week to talk to everyone and find new investigators. This phase of missionary work can be tiring and at times discouraging, but always worth it in the end! As a result of all this hard work, we have seen a lot of miracles! Let's talk about them.
The first one is my favorite one.
On Tuesday, we had made plans to try and stop by J. in the Elders' area one last time. We got special permission to leave our area and biked way down to his house to give him a paper copy of the Book of Mormon. I knew we had to try just one more time. When we got there, he wasn't home. And wouldn't answer his phone. I cried. But I figured it meant we just weren't supposed to see him, and maybe the Elders would be better and help him in another way.
On Friday, we ended up having to give the Elders the car unexpectedly in the middle of the day. We had to bike aaaallllll the way down to their house through their whole area in order to do so. We were trying to be positive, but the two of us were kind of bugged about the whole situation, especially when the sidewalk ended and no one would let us cross the street. Haha we tried desperately to be happy and play the gratitude game when we had a negative thought, but it was hard. We were trying to get home and passed a bus stop when I noticed someone was sitting down. I braked my bike to get off and talk to them, and when I turned around I almost fell down with shock. It was J!!! He said, "Allred!" and was very surprised to see us too. I couldn't believe it. I bore my testimony to him. I invited him to be baptized someday. I told him the Elders would come with the Book of Mormon. I told him also to write me a note to Utah when he got baptized. I told him to call the missionaries as soon as he moved out of his grandma's house. It was awesome. He was happy to see us. It was a very special miracle from Heavenly Father to me specifically. He pulled a lot of strings to get us down there when we needed to be, but I am so grateful He did. It was awesome. I trust that J. will be baptized.
We had a ward activity this week where we watched the Testaments on a huge projector at the church with food and stuff. It was so great. It was geared towards investigators, so we asked all our members to bring their friends. We had a decent number of people show, and quite a few nonmembers. The movie was really powerful, and at the end there was a family who walked up to the Sisters and said, "We cannot deny the Spirit that we just felt." and asked to be taught the lessons. Most of the other nonmembers requested Book of Mormons and gave their information for the missionaries to come by. It was awesome. Sharing the gospel is actually not that hard! It can be fun! :) It was cool to see the ward and the work come together like that.
So it was kind of a challenging week, right?
Sunday we were at the end of our rope and I was very stressed and discouraged. We knelt down in the middle of the day and said a prayer that we would be guided in our efforts and activities during the evening. We have been trying to find new investigators and also talk to EVERYONE. As we were trying to visit people last night, we talked to someone outside named R. from Cuba. He commented that he was familiar with the church, but said his wife was more into that stuff. He then said we could knock on his door and talk to her, which we happily proceeded to do. B. opened the door, started talking to us, and then went to get her Gospel Principles book and her Book of Mormon which were sitting beside her couch. She told us about how she went on a temple tour, how she always used to attend the
Sunday meetings, and how she was preparing for baptism but then decided not to because her husband wasn't on board. We picked our jaws up from off the floor and set a return appointment! Haha what a miracle. They are a great couple and I really think they will come around and get baptized. Another fun part of the story - before the movie night
on Saturday, Brother Najera (one of the members who was putting the party together) randomly gathered us missionaries together to talk about the Popol Vuh - the Mayan bible. He showed us some parts that corresponded with the Book of Mormon, and it was really cool. I had never heard about it before. But on the porch last night talking to R and B, he mentioned it! He started talking about the Popol Vuh! Haha it was the craziest thing ever. The very next day. We were able to connect his knowledge to the Book of Mormon, and that was awesome. God always knows!
So, family, life continues to be good here in Lake Nona. Please pray for us to find some new people to teach. We did pick up a new investigator, I, this week, and she is awesome. But a few more would always be nice. :) Everyone needs to hear the gospel!
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