2/3/20: I. Will. Find. You. and make you come to church

 Another windy, blustery, foggy, crazy week out here in LB. We have been working to adjust to the two companionship-one car-35 mile radius area-kinda thing and we have worked it out that every other day one companionship will stay on bikes and in Los Banos while the other drives. Kinda fun! Kinda also not fun! Definitely not "as seen on TV" kinda deal... we have already had to kick a few stray dogs away from our heels, learn the basics in bike mechanics, and wow we have talked to a lot of homeless people about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ! 

One of our recent converts, Marcelino (from Honduras), moved to another side of town a bit ago and out of the original room he was renting with his son and the lady who owned the room had no address or idea as to where he went. Mareclino had not been to church since the move because no one could find him and Marcelino also can't read and so he had no idea where he lived either when we called him... but he did show us what the house looked like when we facetimed him. For about two weeks we labored to find him and did some ridiculous detective work and knocking random streets and houses trying to find where he lived and finally came up with a solid address to go off of... so we biked all the way over there and knocked on the house and he ANSWERED THE DOOR we found him. and his son who used to meet with missionaries ahahaha! hahahaha I would not stop shaking Santos' (Marcelino's Son) hand until he promised he would come to church next week. We had worked too hard to let him slip away that easily. With the address we were able to send Mareclino a ride and he came to Fast and Testimony meeting at church yesterday! and shared his testimony! woooooow! super awesome! 

Guess who ALSO came to church yesterday and shared his Testimony??? YAIR. He shared how he knows the Book of Mormon is the word of God and he also brought his 8 year old little brother Carlos to church! 

Yair is in Alma 10 of the Book of Mormon right now so if yall want to follow along and send me your thoughts I will share them with him!!!

Honestly he is perfect which is great because I really am not right now haha! But wow my language abilities have skyrocketed. still really rough. I accidentally told a man in spanish the other day that I would love to help him shower... trying to say we would love to help him fix his bathroom... buuuuut wow other than that i can low key kinda communicate and stuff. awesome. 

I don't know what it is but even though i feel totally insufficient in the language i still feel totally confident just walking into lessons or talking to people in spanish while as a month ago i had to do breathing exercises before even trying to pray publicly in Spanish. The atonement is real and I have confidence that Christ and the spirit and love of his message will fill in all the language gaps. especially when Hermana Allen walks into spanish group sunday school and is expected to teach because the teacher did not show.

Hermana Vanslyke is doing very well! She loves everyone here and is very cheerful and uplifting when I get down on myself! She is ready to be obedient and we are working to seek the Lord's will for this area and the individuals we teach.

love you all

Hermana Allen

1) another one

2)black bear diner with the squad

3) crepe night

4)we found a pig on our morning run

5)you can run pig. But I can bike.