10/14/19: Quiere agua

 Hey everyone! hope all is well where ever you are!

Let me tell you, things are great here in Los Banos and Dos Palos... one of the little towns that we cover and started to spend more time in this week! 

No one that has covered this area has ever really knocked in Dos Palos because it is pretty out of the way, pretty small and a little sketch. We have also just had so much work to do here in Los Banos but this week we had an irregular lull in activity so we decided to try out Dos Palos. We packed for the day and headed over there and started knocking. Most people there were not happy that someone was interrupting their sweet sweet isolation and I was getting kinda discouraged so when one little old lady opened her door and yelled "what do you want" i was ready to drop it and walk away. Not my companion though! instead of saying something about our church or whatever she simply said "we want to serve you! is there anything we can do for you today?" this little ladies entire face and body language changed. She started telling us about how, yes, she did need some help and that she was going through a really rough time and was super busy taking care of her grandson and that we should stop by anytime even just to talk...she was really sweet and actually really wanted to talk to us! So we made a plan to go back on Tuesday to help her clean her house! i was humbled by that experience... as representatives of Christ we are hear to teach and testify of his love and there is no better way to do that than to just serve and offer an ear to hear! I want to not only be more willing to listen to people and give them a chance but, to be more willing-more excited and ready to just serve! to offer service!

The adventures continued that day in Dos Palos and even unexpectedly into the next day... when we got a call from a man working as a temple worker in the Fresno Temple. He said that the night before as they were closing the temple for the night a lady and her son came up to the door and started knocking. They both spoke only spanish so they found someone to translate and learned that this lady, Carmen, had just learned she had cancer and that upon learning this her sister, who is a member in mexico, told Carmen to find the missionaries and ask for a blessing! Well Carmen could not find missionaries in Dos Palos because we are based in Los Banos so she went straight to what she had heard was the center of our church.... the temple... to ask for a blessing! So the people working there gave her a blessing and passed our information to us! So we once again packed a day bag and drove to Y Dos Palos...which is a small area a few miles north of Dos Palos and is even more isolated! We got to her house and just this hear of dogs and chickens came running up to us and Carmen was in the middle of it all! waiting! for ussssss! She is actually the sweetest lady on earth and we spent the afternoon helping her feed chickens and dogs and talking to her son and herself more about the gospel and temples! Both her and her son are interested and they came to church!!! 

We challenged Gustavo and Noemi to keep the word of wisdom for 7 days and in exchange we would not have any sugar for 7 days... super sad becasue the halloween count chocula cereal is calling my name... but also totally worth it!!

Also we know it was a productive couple of days when we complied all the water bottles people gave us! People always offer water whe we give lessons or they let us in to their house and since we can't drink tap water here they offer us bottles. 

ok those are all the big highlights for the week! love,

Hermana Allen

photos: 

some pretty cool cats chilling Dos Palos, water bottles, no sugar...