2/10/20: Ma'am, that is a big knife

 Hello hello everyone! 

Another great week here in Los Banos filled with lots of door knocking, bible bashing, rejection, miracles, and all in between. 

Yair is still doing amazing and on his way to baptism within the next couple of weeks!! We are working to find a solid address for his baptismal record because he kinda does not have one right now... but we will figure it out. Our man Ruben is noooooot progressing as much as he was a bit ago... he is a very nice, very shy, older man and we think Church and commitment really makes him anxious and so he keeps finding ways out of keeping commitments and changing (also he is super hard to get ahold of) but nothing a little friendly ministering and prayer can't help! He is so close! He wants baptism and knows the church is true but we just need to help him see that Christ is going to be the one to guide him through everything and that it will take a few steps out of the comfort zone to reach his goals. 

We found a really awesome couple this week that wanted a church tour! The first time I have done one of those but it was actually really cool! It made me reflect on the impact that the structure of the Church has had on my life as well as how everything in the church aims to point back to Christ and helping us become more like him. It was kinda awesome to share those experiences and especially share with them about the sacrament and how anyone can take it each week. That fact really surprised them which surprised me because that has always been apart of my life.

Got to go to Fresno twice this week for a trainer/trainee thing and also for our Zone temple trip! woot woot! super fun! hahaha that other sisters were super hesitant about leaving an hour and a half early to ge to Fresno but that is what it takes! Los Banos is in the middle of nowhere.

Despite some of the struggles we have had working with the group and helping it get branch ready, there has been a huge influx of willingness in the group to support missionary work within some of the YSA aged members. We have 3 return missionaries in the group who all have suddenly just sprung into action without hesitation when we call (we struggled getting them involved in the work before) but it has been fun and EXTREMELY beneficial to work with them and involve them with all our friends and recent converts. It has definitely been good for them too haha there is not a lot to do in Los Banos so might as well put these people to work in the cause of the Lord! Also they all speak fluent Spanish which is helpful because I do not. I think they sense that and feel inclined to help haha. We went with them to a man named Abel's home. Abel is a YSA aged convert to the church from a few years ago and he lives with his very intimidating but very sweet abuela and a variety of other family members that are always coming in and out. hahaha when we knocked the grandma opened the door holding a HUGE KNIFE she then, while holding the knife, kissed each one of us and let us in. She sat in on our lesson listening while shucking cactus with the knife. Abel has not been to church in about a year and did not know there was a group so it was kinda cool to tell him about that and bring him back!

super fun stuff here in Los Banos! Lots of amazing people and the work. is. progressing. little by little.

Lots of charity and peace and stuff

Hermana Allen

1. We spilled all of our laundry soap one morning in the garage and had to clear it using the few resources we had. Wow what a burden.

2. Temple

3. Temple 

4. Our zone at the temple