Im Just Too Beautiful

Hey all of my peoples!

I just want to start off by saying that this title is not describing me. We will talk about the strangeness of the title a little later. But hey!! It was Halloween and the beginning of November! Because generally those are pretty close to each other!! How crazy. But I hope that you all had a great Halloween and ate an inordinate amount of sweet things. Because I did not. I ate an apple and some nice ramen. Good times. Anyway...

Monday (October 29th, 2018)

Today was a super good P-Day. We went and got Burger King and I realized that I miss feeling American. Even though the chicken sandwich I bought was expensive beyond belief, it was amazing. I also bought a shake for the first time in 3 months and realized that I miss ice cream even more than feeling American. But oh well. I also bought myself some Mona Lisa socks for a solid 3 bucks that I will be using when I get home. And a cool story. After all of a preperating (I know that that isnt a word) we got on a bus to take us to a visit we had planned and realized that it was going the wrong way. But we stayed on the bus because we thought, well of course it will turn around. The bus routes are one big circle. Well, 45 minutes later and after a nice accidental trip into the other ZONE of the mission. We went home and shamefully told the member that we are utterly incompetent. It was one heck of a good time. 

Tuesday (October 30th, 2018)

We are trying a new thing this week and I hope that it works, and I belive it will. As we go to visit the people that have recently been baptised, we are going to give them a pamphlet of the Restoration and tell them that if they give this pamphlet to a friend that is not a member, we will give them chocolate. I think that it is a way good idea, but we will see. The 5 people that we gave it to were really excited about the opportunity to receive some free food. We also taught a girl that lost her grandma and it was such an amazing experience to be able to testify to her that I went through the same thing. I was able to testify with absolute certainty that I know where my Grandma is. I know that she still loves me and I know with all of my heart that I will see her again. A great experience for me, and I hope a good one for her too. 

Wednesday (October 31st, 2018)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!! I hope it is as spooky as you want it to be and full of all the candy that can possibly fit in a 7 year old pillow case with who knows whats on it. I hope that goes well for you all ;) Today, I didnt even realize that it was Halloween until about 4 in the afternoon then said, Wow. It is Halloween. Cool. And we kept going. 

We have started to teach a few of the people we contacted this past week and the two that we taught accepted a baptismal date. But it was really weird because we were teaching this one lady and the conversation went a lot like this.

Us: "So the Holy Ghost really can help you with all of the things in your life. It can comfort you and guide..."

Her: "My son really likes to drive his car without a drivers license."

Us: ...

Us: "Yeah, actually this is a lot like how some churches are trying to baptise people. Your son who is driving without a license, can still drive but he doesnt have the authority. These churches are still able to baptise people but they dont have authority to do..."

Her: "Have you ever been in a hurricane?"

Us: ...

Thursday (November 1st, 2018)

Today was one of those days when everything possible falls through so you just kind of go out an do contacts. For example, we were walking to find someone who had previously been taught and we walked for literally 30 minutes just to get there. When we got there, turns out that the address doesnt even exist. It was a good lesson in patience. But, we got a lot of good contacts in and like I always say, we found a lot of times that people are not at home. But the real silver lining was that today I received 3 letters from home and a package too. It was so awesome! Honestly it made my whole month and it is only the first day. It was great to get pictures of all my família e amigos. Man I love and miss yall!

Friday (November 2nd, 2018)

Today was really good. We taught two new people and both of them are really showing promise and signs that they are really interested in changing their lives and doing what is right. The only problem is that they are not legally married yet, and they also smoke marijuana. So, we have got some work to do. But hey, thats what we are here for, am I right? We also went on a split with our District Leader today for about 2 hours to teach some people and it was a really good experience. Elder Blanco is really good at figuring out what the people need. I like him a lot. All in all, a good day. Hope yall had a good day too!

Saturday (November 3rd, 2018)

In an unfortunate turn of events, Zilda will not be baptised for the 6th week in a row because she is still a little sick. So that is actually the worst. But, in a fortunate turn of events, we have a lot more time to work with other people. Like the theme of the rest of this week we made some nice contacts with some good families. I hope they all are ready to be blown away by how awesome their life will be with the true and everlasting Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Sunday (November 4th, 2018)

Today was a really good day honestly. Elder Newman and I were feeling a little bit down about not being able to have the baptism on Saturday and because the Lord is so incredibly kind, he blessed us immensely for our efforts. We met with a lot of recently converted folks (that is the technical term) and also found and taught probably the best contacts of the week. In one of the highlights of my week, we were walking down the road this kid passed me a soccer ball. I think he was trying to show that Americans are no good at soccer. But with my extremely average soccer skills, I nutmeged him. Now for those of you who dont know what that is, it is when the ball goes through the other persons legs and is basically the most humiliating thing that can happen. So that was a good time! ;) Man I love Brasil.

Lets switch it up a little this week.

Random Quotes:

• "I only want to ask God for one thing today. Only one thing. Peace...Oh and I also want to ask for something else..."
• We visited some guys that I am like 97% sure that they are drug dealers, and this is the prayer that Elder Newman said, "Pai Celestial, nos somos gratos pelo esse oportunidade estar aqui com estes caras. (Heavenly Father, we are thankful for this opportunity to be here with these dudes.)." Wow. That is some good stuff.
• Random Guy on the Street: "I think that the spirit of Jesus has chosen me as His body because look at me, I am 46 years old and just too beautiful."
• A Brasilian in our district trying to speak English "I live in a cat pickle."
• The entirety of the movie The Princess Bride because Elder Newman memorized the whole thing. 

It has been one good week and I hope it has been great for you all too!!! 

Love you all!

Elder Allen