July 8, 2013 Monday

Heyyy How's it going? Things are going great here!

Codie got baptized on Tuesday! It was so amazing! She was just beaming with light and so excited! She got her temple recommend that night too so she could go and do baptisms for the dead right away. She is awesome!

I never remember what I say the previous weeks so sorry if I repeat myself! I don't remember if I have talked about Leah, Gilberto, and Tiana.. I think I might have a while ago. Anyway, we had had 1 lesson with them like a month ago and they agreed to baptism but they have been super busy and going out of town so we haven't had another one. They have twins that are like a month and a half old and they have been sick and so that was part of why we hadn't met with them too. Well the babies got blessed yesterday in church. So good! And we are going to meet with them later this week so I think things are progressing with them again :)

Ok so crazy story.. So like 2 weeks ago Sister Sporl and I were walking to an appointment and this girl rides by on her bike and Sister Sporl thought it looked like a girl she taught in her very first area literally 18 months ago! Then a few days later we were walking in that same area and saw the girl again outside! Sister Sporl still wasn't sure if it was her though. Then that night we got a referral from the Spanish Elders to that home! We go over there the next day and it WAS the girl Sister Sporl thought. I guess this girl was going to get baptized! The font was filled and everything but she just never showed up! Ok then literally the next day we got a referral from someone in the mission office to that same home!!!! You think God really wants us to teach them huh!? So amazing! So we have an appointment set for tonight with them so we will see!!!!

The 4th of July was super fun too! Obviously not like the Heber Firework show but it was good! We went to a parade in the morning, then I worked at the Brigham young home and than that evening we had an activity with the Visitors Center sisters and then with our zone. We just played games and ate pizza, which I hadn't had my whole mission so far! So it was good :) 

It was kinda tough because we weren't able to tract that day so we felt behind a little bit but yesterday was the best tracting day yet! We got 3 return appointments from door knocking! That doesn't happen much! We have really been praying hard to find more investigators that have been prepared. So we meet with them all this week so we will see :)

The Lord is really so amazing. I think I have a new favorite chapter in the book of Mormon. Mosiah 24- I especially loves verses 13 and 14. The Lord is always there for us we just need to ask Him to be there and to have faith. Even if it's not in our timing He will lighten our burdens! You will all have to go read it again :)

Well hope you are all doing well! Hope your 4th of July was great, and hope you have a good week!

Love you!

Sister Summer Allen

4th of July with my MTC companions- Sister Luebbert and Sister Sordes

 4th of July with Sister Luebbert

Sister Bergreen served here in the Visitors Center but just finished up hre mission last week. She was the oldest missionary out. 90 years old!!!!!

Codie's baptism :)

Sister Sporl and I on the 4of of July

July 1, 2013 Monday

Alright this past week has been an interesting one.. Haha it was good, they always are! So we had another lesson with Codie last week and it went super well! We filled out everything for her baptism program. Then comes Saturday which was going to be such a great day. We had 4 lessons planned and 1 of them being Codie. While we were at the Visitors Center that morning we got a call from every single one of our appointments cancelling :( And one of them was Codie's grandmother cancelling her baptism. Codie's parents are less active and so they haven't been supportive at all and Codie was getting really down about that. We were super bummer of course! But we immediately turned to prayer and pleaded with Heavenly Father that she would know that this is the right thing to do. We fasted on Sunday as well for her. She is such an awesome girl, it would kill us to not see her get baptized! So that night we just tracted, not finding anyone to teach. But my companion reassured me that when something bad happens it usually means something really great is about to come.

Well then comes Sunday, we had the morning off from the Visitors Center so we were able to go to all 3 of our wards sacrament meetings. Fusi and Rico (one of the families we are teaching) came to church! It was awesome. The lady who spoke in church literally had the perfect talk for them. Fusi and Rico have 2 young daughters and want a religion in their lives to grow their children up in. The lady that spoke had the same thing in her life at one point. She talked about coming to the church and just feeling at peace like this is what they needed in their lives. It was just perfect!! I am really excited to see how everything goes with them!

Then in between sacrament meetings we got a call from Codies grandma.. She decided she is going to get baptized still!!!! HALLELUJAH! So everything is back on and she is getting baptized tomorrow evening! :)

I just love the Lord and the way He works. Ya know, He really does have a sense of humor and really does know what we all need. I think through this we were all strengthened! I know for sure Sister Sporl and I were. Prayers and fasting really does work! The Lord is just waiting to answer and bless us we just gotta show Him how much we really need them.

Well love you all, have a great week!!!!!!

June 26, 2013

Hello! It is going great! This week is transfer week and has been super crazy at the Visitors Center but it's been great. Because of transfer week they had to switch my Pday to today but next week and until at least the beginning of August it will be on Mondays! :) My companion and I are staying together because I am still in training. But she goes home the first week in August so we will see what'll happen next! Sounds like you and the family are doing great though. I wish I could've been there for Lucys blessing and Macie's this weekend but that's alright. I will be thinking of you guys!

Our investigators have been progressing very sloowwllyyyy. I just think it's because of summertime that it has been so hard to meet with them. Do you remember Codie? She is the 13 year old. It had been a few weeks since we had met with her because her sister was getting married and then she went to girls camp all last week. She had a great time at girls camp and she even bore her testimony up there. She is awesome. We met with her again yesterday and things are still great. She is getting baptized next Tuesday the 2nd! Yay I can't wait! She is so on fire. If only every investigator would be that excited about getting baptized. 

Did you guys watch the broadcast on Sunday? I hope so! It was so amazing. It was all on member missionary work really! Which is so great! All of our investigators we have right now have been member referrals. It is so hard to get investigators through tracting and knocking doors. Which we do alot! 

We did finally meet with Fusi though. Her husband, Rico, was the one who pulled over and asked when we were going over there but they had been super flaky but we finally met with her yesterday. He wasn't home- unfortunately!!! But the lesson with her was great. She was baptized when she was 12 and has been less active which we already knew. But what we didn't realize is that she only had been to church 1 time after she had been baptized. So she really didn't know much. But it went really well!

As for Sammy... She's not really progressing because she can't go to church and can't get baptized so we pretty much had to drop her. We will still go visit here and there if we are in the area though. She really does have sucha  desire to learn more but with her grandmother it's just not possible. They are moving next week though so we will have to send her information to the other missionaries anyway.

We had our first lesson with Tricia and Brogan.. did I tell you about them before? I don't remember but I should've. Anyways we had our first actual lesson with them last week and it was good. They thought everything made sense and really enjoyed learning more. We are meeting with them again this week so we'll see. 

Ok funny story time! So last week Sister Lim and I were assigned to the Brigham Young home. So the Watkins (Visitors Center Directors) were dropping us off and right when we get out of the car Sister Lim steps into a hole and her shoe came off so we both kinda stood there for a second thinking who was gonna get it. Next thing we know it started shooting out water. Kinda like the Fountain Hills fountain. Ok not that big but literally like 20 feet in the air! I guess when she stepped in the hole she broke a pipe. Hahaha and so Sister Lim got soaked and had mud all over her because she was still right over the hole! And there was people sitting there waiting for a tour, little did they know they were gonna get a show too. It was hilarious! And the water just kept going and going and wouldn't stop!!!! 

Can I just say how much I love my mission!? Working in the Visitors Center is the greatest thing! It is so awesome to get to know so many sisters. There are always hilarious things going on at the VC. I love that we get to proselyte too! It's just the best of both worlds!!

Anyways, gotta go! Love you guys! 

This is Sister Aruwititi, she is from Kiribati, an island in Micronesia. She goes home tomorrow and I am so sad! She is the sweetest girl ever. Mom- I am going to send you a story about her that one of the senior sisters wrote. It's amazing

June 18, 2013

Hey! How's it going? This week like always was good. They are mostly always good when you're doing the Lord's work though! You just have to look out for the tender mercies from the Lord. Ok so last week I told you about Sammy, the 14 year old we started teaching. She is so golden. Literally has been so prepared for the gospel. We met with her another time last week and it went super good. We were talking about baptism and right as I was about to ask if she would be baptized she said "I wanna get baptized!" Whhaaattt!? Ya so crazy! Just 1 problem, her grandmother who is her legal guardian won't let her. She won't even let her come to church. She let's her talk with us though we just have to do it on the front porch. Super disappointing but we have been praying alot and fasting that her grandmothers heart would be softened. So we went back yesterday and she still can not get baptized but her grandmother said she could at least come to church with us now! That's a huge step! Another sad note, they are moving next week.. They're not even sure where yet. Either way it has been so good to help Sammy come closer to our Heavenly Father and Christ. When we first met her she was super depressed and you could tell and she has gotten so much happier. The atonement has helped her a lot. She never knew that God and Christ were so aware of us. She has been reading the Book of Mormon and praying a lot and she has been happier. So it is good. We will see what happens.

We got a referral for a family this week, Trisha and Brogan. Brogan is a less active and Trisha isn't a member. It actually was a referral from other sisters close by. We went there last week and it was super good and we go back tonight too. So wish us luck!!!

We also got a referral from a lady in one of our wards for one of her college students, Cora. We had the first lesson last night. She is super religious and I think it is hard for her to think there is another book other than the bible. But she is great and has so much potential!

As far as our other investigators.. they have all been super flaky this last week. We have appointments for them this week though so hopefully they won't flake!

Mission life is so great though! It's tough and so hot here haha but it's great!

Hope you all have a great week! Love you guys

Sister Sporl and Sister Allen

This is Sister Page from Kaysville Utah. She was a visa waiter here and left on Monday for Argentina!

June 11, 2013

Hello! Well this past week was great! Our area just keeps progressing! Last week we got a few referrals from our ward mission leader so we contacted those and put 2 of them on date for baptism! One referral was for a family- Leah, Gilberto, and Tiana. Leah is a member but was less active for a while. Gilberto is her boyfriend, and Tiana is Leah's daughter, she is 9. She also has 3 week old twins! (So cute-makes me miss Lucy and Macie) So Gilberto and Tiana both said yes to be baptized! The problem is Gilberto and Leah aren't married so he could take some more work in convincing them to be married soon. Tiana is set on date though for July 20th. I am stoked, they are a great family! 

Codie is still on date but she got pushed back to July 2nd because she will be out of town for a little before then, but she is awesome! 

Another referral we had was for this elderly lady named Arlene and we went by twice and she was never home said her granddaughter, Sammy (14) We went back a third time though (third times a charm, right) and she still "wasn't home" but we started talking to Sammy. We taught her the whole first lesson on her porch and she was really interested in everything. She said she was catholic but really didn't have much of a religious background so it was really interesting. She is so golden I think. She has such a desire to learn more! Right before we left Sammy told us her grandmother had been home all 3 times but doesn't want to talk to us. We are going back later this week for the second lesson with Sammy though. I am nervous that her grandmother won't let her get baptized because she is not very fond of us Mormons. But we will see :)

There is another referral we got for a family who is kind of less active. The parents got baptized 2 years ago but haven't been very consistent in going to church. They also have a 9 year old daughter who is not baptized. But we are meeting with them this week too. The mother says her daughter needs to get baptized and they know they need to go back to church so we will see with them. 

They are a LOT of less actives here and a lot of times we will make appointments with them but then they flake. So I'm not holding my breath on many of them.

Ok funny story time.. Well it was funny to me but I don't know if anybody else will think it's funny unless they were there, well I don't think my comp thought it was very funny but we totally ran into a Bible Basher the other day. All I could do was laugh! I held it in of course.. But it was this black guy who said he straight up said he didn't like white people (even though his wife is white haha) And he just kept going and going, we couldn't get any words in so we just let him talk and talk. We set up an appointment to go back because he said since he talked he would be willing to listen next time. My companion is not so sure about going back but I think we might as well try again. I kept feeling like I should give him a Book of Mormon but I didn't so now we have to go back so I can give thema  Book of Mormon next time! Haha

So I had such an awesome experience at the Visitors Center the other day! We had interviews with the Visitors Center directors and had to set goals. One of my goals was to get a nonmember to fill out a referral card so I could teach them on the phone. (Every day we have time in the Teaching Center to chat with people on mormon.org or do over the phone lessons with people all over the world) So not longer than 30 minutes later a lady walks in so I start talking to her and gave her a tour of the whole Visitors Center. We spent a lot of time in the Savior of the World room, which is a room just full of paintings of Christ throughout his life. She is baptist btw so she has a great relationship with Christ already. But anyways we just talked and talked for about an hour. I pretty much gave her the whole first lesson. And she said she felt good in there and was glad she started her week off there. She started crying and I know she totally felt the spirit! Oh she is from Indiana but living in St George for a month or so for a Biggest Loser Camp btws. Well guess what!? I got her information and will start teaching her lessons over the phone! She is so golden! She loved everything we talked about. At the end she gave me the biggest, tightest hug! Ah it was the sweetest.. She was the sweetest!

Then yesterday a nonmember guy came in and he was saying he noticed a difference in how we look and all the people around the temple. He said it was just a difference in our eyes and smiles. I told him it's because of the spirit here on the temple grounds! That definitely made him ponder for a bit. Guess what!? Got his information too! He is going to be out of the country for a while so we will just correspond via email.

I love this work! I love when people realize they are feeling the spirit. It's like all the sudden a light bulb goes off and you can literally see a change in their eyes as well. This gospel is so great, I love it!

June 4, 2013

Ok this past week has been the best yet! Week of miracles! It is getting easier and easier everyday to see the Lords hand in my life! Last Wednesday we had our district training meeting and of course we were bummed because we were the only ones without a progressing investigator. We had had a few appointments with people before but everyone kept bailing. But later on Wednesday we were at the Visitors Center and a lady from one of our wards came in and said her granddaughter wants to get baptized! Helllooooo where did she come from! Straight from God that's where! Her granddaughters name is Codie and she is 13. So we met with her last weekend and had her first lesson. I invited her to be baptized and she said YES! So in a week and a half she will be baptized! Wahoo! She is great. We had our second lesson with her yesterday. We taught her about the Plan on Salvation and when we got to the different kingdoms she said "It doesn't seem hard to get to the Celestial Kingdom." And it's really not. That is what is so neat about this gospel. It's so simple. Obey God's commandments and you'll be good. Codie is so prepared and so smart!

So last Saturday I went on my first exchange. I had Sister Guisson stay with me and we went in my area. We had a lady who was supposed to drive us around but she never showed up! So we just started walking to our area. We stopped at a few houses but no answers of course. Then all of a sudden this guy pulls over and asks when we were going to come by! His name is Rico, we got his address and information and just decided to head over there right then. So we went to Ricos house and his wife, Fusi and their 2 daughters were all there. Their daughters are both under 3. Fusi is from Samoa and got baptized when she was 12 but they have lost her records and have not been able to find them. She has been inactive for a while too. But we committed them both to going to church and we have our first lesson with them Thursday so we will see. I think they are a really golden family. Oh and on our way to their house another lady pulled over and hands a $20 to us out the window and tells us to go get something cold and she drove off.

So after Rico and Fusi's it was our lunch time so we started walking to this drink and dessert place and we had somebody else pull over! It was a couple that works with us at the Visitors Center and other sites. They decided to join us for lunch so they gave us a ride. We get there and go to pay and they said they don't charge missionaries. Hello so many tender mercies! The members are awesome here. 

It is just amazing how the Lord works. We were bummed because we were going to have to walk in the heat but if we had a ride we wouldn't have found Rico and his family or wouldn't have gotten the $20 or had the Cannon's join us. Which by the way, they said they worked in Palmyra last summer during the Hill Cumorah pageant. They worked at the Visitors Center though so I don't know if you would've met them. Does that name sound familiar?

On Sunday we had a less active guy show up to church that we have been working with. So awesome! I think he is really planning on getting his life together again. 

This week was just amazing! It's been amazing because I have really been feeling like I have been helping people come closer to Christ! It's the greatest feeling! I love this work! I love this gospel! And of course I love you all! 

Love Summer

Haha so awesome! It was so weird they just walked up behind me, I was so surprised! I felt bad because they wanted to take me to lunch but I didn't have much time today even though it is Pday we are really busy. :/