Hey Everybody!!
This week was great! We did a lot of
things that you dont usually think of when you think of normal
missionary work but it was a great week of inspiration and blessing.
Monday (March 25th, 2019)
P-Day.
We have officially run out of things to do on P-Day. We have gone to
all of the stores, all the historical thingies, and all of the slightly
interesting places. So what did we decide to do to entertain ourselves?
We went to the cemetery. Yes, we spent part of our P-Day looking at the
resting places of Caçapavans. It was actually pretty cool to be honest.
We took a ton of pictues which I dont know if that is legal or not but
whatever. We also noticed that there seemed to be a few graves that had
been broken into. Fun Fact: Almost all of the graves here are above
ground so they are actually really easy to break into. We didnt know why
then we saw some gang symbols graffitied on the sides of the graves. So
we now know that gang members are buried too.
After all of
that we had a family home evening with the first counselor and his wife.
It was actually really nice because I have not had a family home
evening on the mission yet. It was nice to talk to people who understand
the Gospel. We learned a lot from Come, Follow Me and all about Peter
and his experience walking on the water. It was a pretty good day.
Tuesday (March 26th, 2019)
We
have yet another conference which to be honest seems like a lot of
conferences but it is great because I get to go back to Pelotas. The
conference will be there. So today we got ready, did our studies, had
lunch and then went straight on a bus to Pelotas. It was so great
because I got to go back into my old area for a little bit and see some
of the people there. It was honestly such a blessing for me. I got to
see some of the good that we did in that area after 6 months and it was
so awesome to see people again.
Wednesday (March 27th, 2019)
Today
was the multi-zone conference. We had 4 zones of our mission at the
conference and it was great to see everyone but the even better part was
the traning that we had. I had been praying a lot for inspiration on
how to help our district and especially our members in the branch and it
was amazing because I didnt really feel or think anything for the
majority of the conference but in the last 10 minutes I had a whole
bunch of thoughts come to my head and they really helped me and I know
that they were inspirations from Heaven.
Thursday (March 28th, 2019)
Today
we got back in our area and started work again. We had a few good
visits and then we went to a meeting with our Branch Mission Leader. We
had some really good ideas and a lot of good thoughts were flowing. It
was great to see because in our first meeting with him he seemed like he
wasnt that excited about the work and now he is really into it. He gave
someone a Book of Mormon, invited his friends to church, and one of
them even came. It was a testimony to me that members have so much
impact in missionary work, maybe even more than the missionaries
themselves.
Friday (March 29th, 2019)
Today
we had our usual good visits, found a couple good people and even found
a family. Which, as I have already said, is really rare. They even have
a car. Which is even rarer. We are super excited to teach them. We also
had a lady tell us that we could come back another day but only if we
took literally only 5 minutes to teach, so we are going to see how this
goes. It should be an adventure ;) Then we had the activity which is
going amazingly well. We are reactivating a family and so far 4 non
members have come to church because they first went to the activities.
Saturday (March 30th, 2019)
Today we found out all about the transfer.
Elder Allen: He is staying in Caçapava (big surprise haha)
Elder Jolley: He is staying with Elder Allen in Caçapava. (Woohoo)
Sister Spencer: She has been transfered to Rio Grande and will do amazing things there!
Sister Muniz: She is staying and her new companion is named Sister Carlota. She was previously in Porto Alegre.
Sister Altamirano: She is staying her but she will have a new companion named Sister Moraes.
Sister
Ucharico: She is being transfered after just one transfer on the
mission which is really rare but she will be going to Pelotas!
We
taught a lot of people today and invited a lot of people to church. The
best thing that happened today was that we taught a lady the Plan of
Salvation and at the beginning of the lesson she believed in
reincarnation and then she called us later after we had left and said
that she got an answer to her prayer and she knew that that really was
Gods plan for us. It was so amazing!
Sunday (March 31st, 2019)
Today
we had a family come to church!!!! And they even brought a neighbor!!!
We were so happy because we have been inviting them for a really long
time now and something always gets in the way. We were happy and sad
today because all of the missionaries brought in a record number of non
members but a lot of the members arent coming so our attendance was
pretty low. But I think that is because it was raining. But you just got
to work hard and do what you can do and leave the rest off to the
side.
Random Thoughts:
- We met a man who smokes almost 200 cigarettes a day and he kept telling us his chest hurts. Well of course it does man, you are drinking about 2 liters of flaming tar every day.
- We passed somebody on the street and said "How are you?" and he responded with "Uh huh." Well, I am really glad that you are Uh huh today sir.
- We saw an orange spider crab thing that jumps then it got hit by a car. It made the loudest snapping sound.
Spiritual Thoughts:
I
was reading about Ammon and Aaron and wondering how they were able to
be such amazing missionaries. Then I noticed that all of them, before
they started teaching, they were serving. They served the people and the
kings to show them that they were true disciples of Christ and really
wanted the best for them. I just love the story of Ammon and Aaron. They
are huge examples for me, especially now.
I
know that this week is going to be such a great week for all of you!!
May God bless you and tune into General Conference. It is going to be amazing. You wont want to miss it. (Wow I sound like a hype
trailer.)
Love,
Elder Allen
