09/05/19 Almost Done...Kinda

There was a moth like the size of my hand in our classroom this week. One of the Elders in my district tried to take a picture with it and it started flying and everyone just started screaming... we eventually caught it in a bag and had a ceremony to release it which was pretty magical...honestly all the bugs here are really big, especially the mosquitos. Yikes!!

Today we got to visit the temple again which is super exciting because 1. the temple is amazing and beautiful here and a perfect chance to reflect and learn and 2. we got to leave the walls of the CCM which was super fun! Life is moving both so fast and so slow and Hermana Nelson and I are just so excited to get to Fresno. I honestly love it here, but I am starting to get kinda anxious to get out in the field (despite my spanish not being anywhere near ready). We were able to teach a lesson yesterday via skype to a practice investigator and that was pretty difficult but also awesome! Normally we just pretend to teach our teachers and such but it was honestly so much fun to connect with someone new and learn and provide what they needed from us. Everything you do as a missionary in the field is completely based off of love and fitting individual needs! I love it! Everyone is so different and has different life experiences and things that I can learn from them... I just can not wait to get out there and find/get to know people!

Last week we had a campus wide devotional about the Book of Mormon! It was pretty cool and the mission president, at the end of the devotional, asked for an elder and a sister to come up and bare their testimony. I have never felt such a strong impression to get up and share so I did! It was awesome! A little nerve racking, but I am so glad I did! Before my mission I couldn't understand why missionaries would spend so much time sharing and preaching The Book of Mormon while they could spend time digging wells or feeding the homeless.. things that seem more productive. I have learned here though that there is nothing better I could be doing to help people. The Book of Mormon contains the pure love of christ and therefore brings a motivation to people to change their lives for the better. The book invites people to come unto christ, to love others, to become perfected and joyful through the gospel. This book was written for these latter days and contains a beautiful, personal message for each one of us. The love we share as missionaries through the Book of Mormon is more personal and more impactful than anything else I could do for someone. 

This week I said goodbye to a lot of friends heading out to the mission field. It was pretty sad but also happy because I am so excited for all of them! This week I will have to say goodbye to my companion from promix and I am not looking forward to that, Hermana Carballa has helped me so much in the language and has been an amazing friend!! 

Life is pretty good here- ice cream sandwich eating contests, thunderstorms, evening study sessions, verb conjugations- it's pretty fun!

Have an awesome week!!

"The immediate goodness of God comes to all who call upon Him with real intent and full purpose of heart. This includes those who cry out in earnest desperation, when deliverance seems so distant and suffering seems prolonged, even intensified.

So it was with a young prophet who suffered to the brink in the dank of a dungeon before finally crying out: “O God, where art thou? … How long shall thy hand be stayed … ? Yea, O Lord, how long … ?” In response, the Lord did not immediately deliver Joseph, but He did immediately pronounce peace.

God also gives immediate hope for eventual deliverance. No matter what, no matter where, in Christ and through Christ there is always hope smiling brightly before us. Immediately before us."- Kyle S McKay 

Hermana Allen