11/11/19: Chowchilla, Fresno and the bathroom

 This week we had exchanges and a leadership training in Fresno so we were all over the north end of the mission this week! 

I went to Chowchilla for exchanges and joined Hermana Sepulveda in her work there! Chowchilla is about an hour away from Los Banos and its main source of economy comes from a prison within the towns boundaries. The little apartment the Hermanas stay in is a little funky and I did something weird to the bathroom door when I closed it and got stuck in there until Hermana Sepulveda could remove the actual handle with a butter knife! Super exciting! In Chowchilla I also got to meet Josh, the wards newest convert, for a lesson. Josh has been in and out of prison his entire life and has spent a cumulative of 22 years incarcerated. When I met Josh I have to admit I was a little taken aback... most of his face and body is covered with this super sick tattoo of a skeleton... definitely not someone you would expect to take an interest in Jesus... or Family History... the topic of our lesson... but he is totally converted!!! Just from talking with Josh you can see this new light that shines through his outer appearance and anything that has happened in his past. Ladies and Gentlemen the power of the Atonement is real. We talked about the purpose of family history and baptisms for the dead and making family trees and stuff... which felt a little funny at first but Josh was into it and was excited to provide his family with a "second shot" just like the one he got!

Spending the day in Fresno was super fun too! I got to knock some doors with HERMANA NELSON my comp. from the CCM who i flipping LOVE (both our companions were in the training meeting) and it was super fun to share what we have learned and work in tandem with what we have learned in spanish!

This week we also began teaching a boy named Gabriel Gonzalez. He is 13 and his family lives out of one of the rooms in a little motel in Dos Palos. His mom called us and told us that she wanted him to be baptized and that we needed to head over asap. So we drove out to the motel but when we got there we couldn't find Gabriel! After asking someone we think was his brother, we eventually found Gabriel sitting on the roof of the Motel! We finally got him to come down with his moms help and uh wow this kid is really hard to talk too... he kept trying to trick us and run away but with his mom there he didn't get very far... we are going to try and make our lessons as interactive as possible and less of a sit and listen kinda thing.... Gabriel is actually a really good kid and helping him connect to the gospel is probably going to be challenging but i am excited to see what happens when it finally connects! 

Ok ok ok.... Jose Chiquillo's baptism was scheduled for yesterday morning at 8am... but he canceled via text the night before. A little context on Jose... he has accepted and canceled last minute on 5 baptismal dates over the last year. He has read the entire book of mormon and knows it and the church is true. He comes to church every sunday and the worst thing he has done in his life is chastise his German Shepherd "BigBoy". He just is very very very shy.... We drove to his house IMMEDIATELY after receiving the text that same night and rescheduled with him instead for 6pm the next day (right before our 7pm spanish service) but then about an hour before he canceled again! So once again we drove to his house but we knocked and it didn't seem like he was home so we just sat there on his porch waiting for him to either call us back or come home. We had been sitting there for about 15 minutes when suddenly he came out of his house!!! Haha we gave him quite the surprise but we talked with him and resolved some of his fears... promising that it would only be us, the person baptising him and the bishop there at the service. With that confirmation, Jose jumped in his car, towel in hand, and we headed to the church! yiiiiiiiikes. Kinda stressful but totally worth it! Jose was so happy! Also we were able to be witnesses which was SUPER AWESOME!!

ok if any of y'all want to make Hermana Allen super happy please write her a nice hand written letter and send it to her! I love letters and I will write back!! (1814 North Echo Ave Fresno Ca, 93704)

Ok I love y'all, have a wonderful week!

Hermana Allen

Photos: Marcelino tried to introduce his son in Honduras to the gospel by facetimeing us and him at 6:30 am. Photos of José and his baptism! A delightful meal. A house in chowchilla with THIRTEEN CATS... they all ran away when I tried to take the picture so it is just me. I tried.