9/23/19....Los BaNOS? I think you mean Los BaYES

Hello everyone!!

I made it to California alive... just barely though, I was kinda sick for the next few days after arriving here which is ironic because I am serving in the Los Banos area....(which means bathroom in Spanish haha!) 

I had a super long day of travel starting at 1am Wednesday morning (didn't sleep the night before but no regrets) and long story short did not sleep for about 23 hours! But here I am! And the trip over here was so fun and filled with so much excitement, flying over Fresno was super amazing! looking out over all the fields and the city...awesome! It was super sad saying goodbye to Hermana Nelson, but my new companion/Trainer Hermana Brown is AMAZING. We are the only missionaries serving in a area with a 45 minute radius and we cover several other small towns along with Los Banos. Hermana Brown has been here for 5 months adn knows all the ins and outs. The people LOVE HER. She is super amazing at working with members and especially at helping to organize things for church (our Spanish group just became a Branch so there is a lot to help with!) That being said there is soooooooo much work to be done! We work with the English ward and Spanish Branch here and there is so much to be done! I really hit the ground running which is exactly what i wanted! When we knock on a door there is 50% chance that the person who answers will speak only Spanish so I definitely need to up my Spanish speaking game haha! Fortunately my companion is pretty much fluent and an absolute saint when it comes to helping me! 

There are so many cats here in Los Banos it is insane. It makes me super happy to see them all haha!

As soon as we got to Los Banos we started to knock doors. The first door we knocked a nice man answered and took a pass along card but kindly explained in spanish that he was not interested. The next door we knocked a man answered and told us cheerfully to come in. We walked in and started to talk to him but suddenly this lady came out from the other room and started screaming at us and took us both by the neck and literally pushed us out haha! I don't think she was interested.... most of the people here though are really nice and when i mess up while speaking Spanish most people are really empathetic because they are trying to learn English! 

I had my first baptism this week! It was for a lady named Rita Salazar who is from Guatemala, her grandson and husband were baptized before I came here and we are taking them all to the temple this friday for the first time so that Hermana Salazar can be baptized for her mom that passed away. This Saturday we took another recent convert, Marcelino, to the temple to do baptisms for the first time. Marcelino is from Honduras and his wife and children still live there while he works to bring them here! Marcelino has been saying for a really long time that he would love to have his family baptized into the church while they are still in Honduras so that when they join him they will be members too. SO this week we contacted the Honduras mission and learned that there was a new mission area opening right where Marcelino's family lives! Now we are working to connect them and the missionaries! God is aware of each of his children and wants us to be with our families in this life and the next! 

We are also teaching two Tongan families right now so I am trying to learn a little Tongan (both families speak english but have been teaching us a little)! One of the families has 22 people living in their home,18 of them children so we are trying to make our lessons super fun and engaging! We are specifically teaching two of the children- Hina and Leah but most of the kids will join us at some point during the lesson! They all have amazing questions about the gospel and the church and i am amazed at their knowledge at such a young age!!

I love you all and hope you have an amazing week!

Alma 36:24-25

photos the last days/ some friends at the CCM and my first few days here in California!

Hermana Allen