10/21/19: Conoce los frijoles?

 So apparently when people ask in Spanish if you are familiar with a type of food or a place they ask "conoce?" which translates to "do you know" (like to know a person). Well a sweet lady we were teaching tried asking us if we were familiar with the type of beans she was serving us and asked me in the best english she knew (which is really nice because she wanted to make sure i understood cause my spanish still has quite the ways to go) if i knew the beans... i didn't quite hear her the first time and asked her to repeat so she yelled "do you know the beans" and that was probably the funniest thing i have ever heard... i didn't laugh then because I literally say things that dont make since in spanish all the time and i really am thankful that she was trying to help me understand but haha it definitely took me off guard!

We started reading the Book of Mormon in Spanish as a companionship and have a goal to finish by January 21st..the day Hermana Brown goes home (muy triste) and it is crazy because I have no idea what I am reading but since we started reading it together my Spanish has just took off! things have been clicking, new vocab has just been coming... i am still really slow and ahahahaha have a lot of work but wow blessings. super crazy how stuff like that works.

This week we helped set up a baptism for a family of recent converts. The couple's twins were being baptized and basically the whole spanish group we are serving was going to attend and we thought "wow, what a perfect opportunity to show some people we are teaching what baptism is like!".........as it turns out one of the twins, the little boy, has a phobia of water and swimming......which was amplified by all the new people around him watching..... long story short the service was pretty traumatizing for everyone..... especially the two sister missionaries who had brought people with no prior knowledge of the church to attend the service. Ok but the spirit works in funny ways friends.... the couple that we had brought actually loved the baptism! They were impressed by how loving and patient everyone was and how unified the group was. They loved watching the dad and how happy he was when he baptized his daughter and how loving and comforting he was helping his son. they loved how everyone wanted to talk to them and how friendly and happy everyone was! wow. miracles.

A cool thing happened this week while we were tracting in an area we normally wouldn't hang around. We had experienced a lot of rejection and were planning to leave and never return but then we saw that this one house we had already knocked with no response had its lights on! we decided to try again not really thinking anything of it. before we even finished knocking the door swung open and this boy with the BIGGEST smile just looked at us and yelled "sisters! where have you been?" he then just ran back into the house and got us like a bunch of capri suns and blankets and told us to just sit there right on the porch and talk to him. Turns out Lipe, the boy who opened the door, was baptized a member with his mom years ago. They are tongan and therefore related to all the other tongans in the area including some of the families that attend the englsih ward! He and his mom have been through some STUFF, fell away from the church for years, but he has been recently thinking about the church and how he wants to change and was actually READING A SCRIPTURE HIS AUNT SENT HIM when we knocked. He was super enthusiastic to see us and begged us to come back and talk to his mom. Honestly he was just the nicest kid ever and i will never forget just the light and energy that just hit us when he opened the door! he also gave us some New Zealand oven pie kinda things (???) and they were super goooood

Those are the highlights this week! Love you all!!

Hermana Allen

can you add this to the email i just sent? love you

ok everyone. MARCELINO'S WIFE AND KIDS IN HONDURAS ACCEPTED A BAPTISMAL DATE we just found out through the elders that we have been communicating with and that found them. this is amazing I am on top of the world right now!!! We are going to Marcelino's to tell him the news!!! so so happy that they found the family! Marcelino has been praying for this!!!

Photos

1.We love Los Banos and all it has to offer.

2.Specifically took this photo in honor of my little brother Daniel and the fact that I have the entire Cars movie memorized due to him watching it everyday for 2 years.

3. CASADILLAS EVERYDAY