Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Hello, How's it going?

Sad news- Naomi and Anthony did not get baptized Saturday :( Their mom was sick and so they weren't able to come down to the Visitors Center for their baptismal interviews and I guess Anthony isn't sure if he wants to be baptized now. Their mom thinks there is pressure from their dad to not get baptized. But Naomi is still on top of it and very excited!! They just have all been sick so it might go on this weekend and might not. Whooo knows. 

We did have a very good lesson with James though!!!! He met us at the Visitors Center and we took him through "Gods Plan for his Family" and showed him pictures of the inside of the St George Temple. It was sooo good! He asked lots of questions and told us he wants to be sealed to his wife and children! As far being baptized he has been "very busy" and so hasn't picked a date (or place) yet. But we are seeing him again tonight soooo we are going to pick a date!!!!!! He's so ready. Pray for him that he may feel the need to be baptized sooner rather than waiting for who knows what. Maybe we should read Alma 34:33 with him. We will follow up on that next week ;)

Ok so I'm not sure if I have talked about Kanani and her sons at all, Hayden (9) and Jeremiah (6). But we tracted them out about 3 weeks ago I think? Kanani is in-active and so her son Hayden has not been baptized. We had 1 lesson with them 2 weeks and did a fun little Church, Pray, Read game with them. And they just loved it! We have been trying to set up another time to meet with them and they want to but are extremely busy. She works 2 jobs everyday plus with all heir extracurricular activities they are a busy family. But let me tell you, I LOVE THEM! They are Samoan so I automatically love them. But there are 2 Samoan sisters here in the VC so they are teaching me little phrases in Samoan so every time we go to visit I tell them a new phrase I've learned and they always just laugh at me because Samoan is really hard and I'm sure I butcher it every time.. But it's fun. Anyways, we just decided to stop by there last night. Which by the way, we had 4 lessons last night and ALL of them cancelled!!!!! Grrrr. but it was good. We just were able to go and get to know them more and just really become friends. Listen up, it is sooo important to gain the trust of non-members, and in actives. There doesn't need to be a formal lesson every time. And for all you member missionaries out there. Reach out to your neighbors! People just need to feel loved, wanted and feel the spirit through you! 3 Nephi 12:14-16

Ok so somehow we are continuing to see miracles here! Our heavenly Father truly loves us!!! :) We got 2 new investigators this week! One is Lisa. She was meeting with the sisters like 3 months ago but somehow just stopped meeting with them so we finally decided to go and see what happened. Turns out she has just been busy with the holidays and that's it really. She has great fellow shippers and came to church Sunday! And she loves it! Her husband isn't too sure about it and so I think that holds her back. She also has 2 sons (11 and 12) and they love their scouts and YMs. Anyways, she already brought up baptism!!!! Wooo! We are offically gonna have our first appointment with her in a couple days so I'm excited. 

Next is Melinda. She is married to a LA man and they live with his active parents! She has been coming to church with them and everything so we went over, met her, and set up a time so we can come teach her. The lord is putting prepared people in our paths! It is just simply amazing! 

We also went to the Beehive Home (Old Folks Home) here in our area and visited with the residents there yesterday. We met a lady named Barbara who isn't a member but said she likes to live like she is one. She has great friends that are members that are working with her and so we will continue to try with her.

I LOVE THIS WORK! I love this area and I love these people! Transfer calls are this Saturday and transfer day is next Tuesday! And I'm freaking out.. as always! You get to an area, love it, then have to leave and are sad.. and it starts all over again! But it's great. That is the mission life.

I hope you all are doing great!!!! LOVE YOU!

~Sister Allen

January 8, 2014- Miracles!

Hello, How's it going?

Ok I have spent too much time personally emailing everyone so sorry if this is shorter..

Exciting news- We have 2 baptisms this Saturday! Ya, where did that come from? The Lord, the spirit.. you name it! So I have talked about Naomi (10) and Anthony (9) a bit. So we committed them to baptism last week but couldn't pick a date because their parents weren't there on that lesson. So the next day we went back and they said they wanted to be baptized this weekend. It just worked out perfect because their uncle is coming in to town and so they would like him there. I just love these kids. They have such a desire to learn and they are so smart. They retain everything! I love it.

I also talked about James, our eternigator, last week. Well we met with him again and guess what? He wants to be baptized!!!!!!!!! Yes the James that has met with sisters for 2-3 years and never ever wanted to be baptized. He wants to be baptized in California but hey better than not at all, right. So he hasn't picked a date but we are meeting with him tonight at the Visitors Center and we are so excited!! We are going to show him 'God's Plan for his Family' and talk about the temple and it is going to be great! Hey all you Mesa people, go to the Visitors Center! It is so fantastic, and if you feel like crying just go to 'God's Plan for his Family' it works every time. But if it is like ours there is Kleenex box's in there just in case ;)

We have a new investigator, Jessica, too that I haven't talked about yet. The week before I came in to this area she saw the sisters walking by and offered them cookies. Turns out she is Catholic and is married to a less active member, Dayton. So right before Christmas we went over and shared a Christmas message with them and when Dayton gave the prayer at the end he started to cry. It was so tender! But they were then out of town for while so we stopped by a few nights ago and set up another time. I am so excited to teach them. They are the cutest, little family!

Oh more exciting news- So in the Visitors Center we have an hour everyday to go in the 'Teaching Center' where we can call people over the phone to teach them. Whether its people that come in to the center, referrals, people that call us through mormon.org, or friends back home even! Salt Lake actually just told us that we can call our non-member friends to teach them!!! I am so excited! So hey if you have any one you want me to call I will!!!!!

Well I am just loving this time. I got my 'halfway papers' this week and I kinda freaked out! They gave me a copy of the goals I made my first day in the field so I could go over them. 

Love you all!

January 2, 2014

Hello, How's it going?

Well this week, as last week, has been different for us missionaries with New Years Eve and New Years Day. New Years Eve was a normal day until 6pm and then we got to watch Ephraim's Rescue with our District. It was fun and I LOVE that movie! New Years Day was weird because we assumed it was a normal day so we had appointments all lined up. Throughout the day though we found out it was like Christmas, just a relaxed day but we had things planned so everyone played sports all day while we had lessons. Except we did get to meet our district for bowling but of course we had a lesson right after so we only stayed for about 30 minutes. 

Our lessons went really well though so we feel super blessed about that. Our first one was with Cory and Andy. Cory is a LA and her son, Andy, got baptized about a year ago. We had tracted them out earlier in the week. Anyways, we went in with a lesson planned but switched it half way through because we felt like he needed something different. Cory's husband had left them a while ago and so Andy has been really down and hasn't felt loved and had lots of questions about God. We were able to put him to peace, to let him know that God knows and loves him. Greatest feeling ever when you can help someone realize that. That's what this gospel is for. To bring peace and joy into our lives as we strive to come closer to our Heavenly Father and truly live the gospel! Ah love it.

Our other lesson was with Naomi and Anthony, they are 9 and 10. Their mother is LA and their dad is not a member. We have tried so many times to meet with them and it never actually happened until last night. Unfortunately, their parents were not home but their (active) grandparents were so we went ahead and taught them anyway. We committed them both to baptism but couldn't set a date without their parents there. We are meeting with them againtomorrow thought so hopefully we can put them on a for sure date! Woohoo!

So we have 2 eternigators (eternal investigators). I'll start with James. So James has been meeting with the missionaries for 2-3 years. His wife is a strong, active member and so he goes to church with her and their son everySunday! So we went over there this last week and met with him for the first time since I've been here. We had planned to talk about baptism and confirmation. I really wanted to find out what has been holding him back. Turns out the only thing holding him back is coffee. He believes the Book of Mormon is true, he believes Joseph Smith was a prophet and President Monson but somehow he just can't wrap his head around that coffee isn't good for you. He struggles too that members of the church drink caffeine and energy drinks and says those are just as bad. He said before when he met with missionaries they challenged him to go 30 days without drinking coffee and he did, but on the 31st day he drank coffee again. He said he can live without it but just doesn't think it's necessary. Agh! So our commitment to him was to really pray about it, to pray to have that understanding of the Word of Wisdom and the desire to live it. We also gave him a baptismal calendar to pray over a date when he can prepare himself to be baptized. I'm telling you he is so ready! Stupid adversary. Ok something funny about James.. he gives all the sisters that meet with him nicknames.. So I am now Sister Short Legs. My feet couldn't touch the ground when I sat on his couch :( But hey neither did Sister Phagwah's but she was already named Sister Catwomen because she hates cats! Hahaha

Ok now on to, Pat. Pat hasn't been meeting with missionaries quite as long as James but he has been attending church every Sunday as well and paid his tithing for 1 whole year now too, oh and also reads the Book of Mormon all the time! I'm pretty sure he is more active than some of the members here. Haha. He is also married to an active member. (You find that everywhere here in Southern Utah!) We went over to get to know him more and really find out what's holding him back. He has a few random issues but really not much. He just hasn't felt that feeling yet that this is what he needs to do. We gave him a baptismal calendar also and asked him to really pray specifically to receive answers. He is going out of town with for work for a week or so but I am so excited to meet with both him and James again. They are both so prepared, I'm telling you!! They both have testimonies but just like to deny it.

Anyways, our area seems to be progressing and I am so so excited about that! It's already almost week 5 of this transfer and that freaks me out! Where does this time go! Also, I have less than 9 months left! What!?

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

Sister Summer Allen

December 26, 2013

Hello, How's it going??

Well this past week had been really great! It seems like it has been forever since I have emailed home but I guess it has been 9 days. My Pday will be on Thursday again next week and then who knows what. It's kind of all over the place this transfer..

Well last weekend 2 great things happened.. Well more than that but I'll just share some. 1- Sister Sordes and I got to go on an exchange together! :) We were in a trio companionship our last week at the MTC when we did Visitors Center training and so I just love love love her. She is my Sister Training Leader so I was privileged to go on a 1 day exchange with her. It was so good to be able to serve with her and see how much she has grown. She is such a great missionary and just so personable with everyone and makes them feel comfortable. She's just awesome. Hopefully one day we can be real companions. Ok 2- Ben got baptized this weekend! I've only been in this area (almost) 3 weeks now so I had only met him once before his baptism but it was such an amazing baptism! He was just so prepared and ready to be baptized. He is 18 years old and is already planning to serve a mission in 1 year. Talk about awesome. It was so neat though because when he was going down into the water it was like slow-motion and then when he came up he took a big breath of air. It just made me think of how the baptism really does symbolize us being born again. When we are baptized we are completely washed away of our sins and made clean and almost like a new person. It was just so neat. Plus President and Sister Center came so that was great to have them there as well.  3- We got to sing at the Tabernacle on Sunday with a bunch of the missionaries close by here to St George. It was a great night!

This week it didn't seem that we had much noticeable progression in our area. It is so hard being in the Visitors center and sharing half of our time there. Plus with the holidays everyone has just been so crazy. But the Visitors Center has been great! I am getting back into the swing of things there. Let me tell you though, Monday night was a mad house there. Last Monday night before Christmas= insane! We had to have had like 2000 people there, I swear. Ok maybe not that much but there was a lot. It was so fun though just staying busy and talking to everyone. Sister Phagwah and I were able to get a good amount of referrals that night though so that was good. Since coming back to the Visitors Center I haven't had a whole lot of people to call in the Teaching Center so I'm excited to get that going again. Do you remember like 6 months ago before I left the Visitors Center for Kaibab I was teaching a lady over the phone named Joyce? Anyways, I have gotten in contact with her again. She has moved temporally and left her Book of Mormon at her other home in a whole other state. Well she gave me her now address to send her a copy and before she wouldn't give me her address so this was a big step! Anyways, she just had surgery so please pray for her and pray she will be able to have that desire to read more!

Ok now Christmas- It was so great to talk and skype to you familia! I had a really great Christmas. I'm kind of sad it'll be my only one on the mission really. So Christmas Eve we had dinner with the Turner family in one of our wards. Every Christmas Eve they get matching pajama bottoms and so they got Sister Phagwah and I some too. It was so cute. Then we had a district activity that night and got to watch Despicable Me 2! Ahh I was so stoked but we missed the last 15 minutes or so because of curfew :( Sad day! So I'll probably have to wait 9 more months to finish it. Haha! Then Christmas morning we had breakfast with the Drolets, one of the senior couple we work with at the Visitors Center. They made us eggs, biscuits, and bacon. So good! Then we headed over to the Visitors Center for our "Secret Angel" gift exchange and white elephant gift exchange. Sister Luebbert (MTC companion) ended up being my Secret Angel so that was fun! She got me a picture from with some really embarrassing pictures from the MTC haha but it was fun! We then skyped and then after headed back to the Visitors Center for lunch with all the sisters and senior couples. Some wards donated scarfs and we all got to pick out 3! I think I have a total of 13 scarfs know. Haha I'm not sure how that happened.. but I love them so I'm not complaining! ;) We then had a zone activity our in Hurricane and had another White Elephant Gift exchange and then played Ultimate Frisbee. Which was good because that prepared us for the 2 dinners Sister Phagwah and I had that night :o I feel so very blessed to be here serving in this mission. We are so spoiled here in Utah. One of our dinners gave us some gifts too, including yet another scarf! Hahaha! We ended our night with a short shift at the Visitors Center. So it was a very good Christmas!!!!!!!! I have loved being back in the Visitors Center at this time to be able to remember the true reason for this season- Jesus Christ. 

Well I hope that you all had a great Christmas and have a happy new year!!!!! LOVE YOU ALL!

December 17, 2013- Merry Christmas!​!!

Hello, How's it going?

Can you believe Christmas is already here!? Well, next week! This is my last Pday before Christmas! Insane. Seriously I don't know where the time goes. Christmas Eve will be 8 months since I entered the MTC.

Well I have been back in St George 1 week now. It's good to be back in the Visitors Center but I miss Kaibab too! It's been a little weird to adjust back to it, especially because it is winter time so the Visitors Center slows down a ton! At least during the day, it's been slow. I miss being out in Kaibab and just working hard every second. I feel like I get more tired in the Visitors Center because sometimes I could be sitting there for 1 hour or more without anyone coming in. But it is good. The spirit is always so strong in the Visitors Center and the people are coming to us!

My new companion is Sister Phagwah from Guyana in South America. And opps she doesn't even speak Spanish so ignore that comment last week. (Embarrassing) Anyways, It was so crazy that first day when I found out Guyana was in the West Indies mission and I told her my brother-in-law served there so that night we got out our photo albums and she started freaking out because Joey served in her branch! I swear, the world just gets smaller and smaller. Anyways I love Sister Phagwah. She is just the sweetest! We have had so much fun together already!

As for my new area.. Washington East 2. It's pretty good. We have 6 investigators I think. I haven't even met all of them yet, it's been so crazy. But we do have a baptism this weekend. Which is pretty exciting! Oh speaking of baptisms- TOBI GOT BAPTIZED SATURDAY! I asked President if I could go, I even had an offer for someone to come get us and drive us back but he said no. :( Thankfully Sister Hollander snapped this picture of her and her husband Bill, who baptized her. Isn't she so cute!?? You can see how happy she is! Ah I love her!

Anyways, the area I am in now I guess has been kinda struggling but we have the faith that things are going to pick up. They already have really!! Last night we decided to tract on this one street and it was like a miracle street, I swear. We found 2 non-members which we set return appointments with both of them and one actually became a new investigator! Her name is Sandy and she is Jehovah Witness (for now;) so she had lots to say but you can tell that she is open and is still searching for more! I am so excited to go back and meet with her! :) We are going to see miracles this transfer!!!

Embarrassing story of the week: We accidentally locked our keys inside our apartment one night and we had to get other sisters to help us break in! Hahaha so funny! There is a picture attached of it. Of course, I had to get my camera out ;)

Well, I gotta go. But familia I will talk to you next week!!!!!!! And everyone else, hope you have a great Christmas! And I hope that you remember the true meaning of Christmas. Here is a cute, little Christmas Mormon message.

http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=2874125972001

Love you all!!!!!

December 9, 2013- Goodbye Kaibab :(

Hello, How's it going?

Good news: The time is finally here for Tobi to be baptized this weekend! 

Bad news: I'm getting transferred tomorrow :(

I am really really sad to leave Kaibab.. Like really sad. I have loved working here. It's been the hardest yet but brought the most joy. I love the small town and the people here. Everyone is so great and the people are all starting to progress now! And it kills me that I am going to miss Tobis baptism!! I can not even talk about her enough and how amazing she is. We saw her quite a bit this week and finalized her interview and baptism! We also went over there last night to watch the Christmas Devotional. While President Monson was talking she said "He's looking right at me. He's talking to me." She loves President Monson so much and has such a powerful testimony of him. Well I hope you all watched it cause it was so good. I really enjoyed Elder Nelsons talk on the Savior. SO SO GREAT! 

Oh and we got a new investigator this week in Colorado City! Yipee! Her name is Anniston and she is almost 10. Her family is less-active so we are trying to work with them and hopefully get them re-active but we were able to set Anniston on date for January 4th so hopefully they can get really committed by then.

We met with the Jim and Sue just once this week because they have been out of town. But it went pretty well other than we extended the baptism invitation and she didn't accept. She's "already been baptized" so we will see! I love them so much! I am sure gonna miss all these people. They won't get back until tonight so I will not even get to say goodbye. I hate transfers.

This week has been so insane with the snow. I had mentioned (I think last week) that it snowed but oh nooooo. I have now seen snow. It was worse than when I lived in Provo! Saturday night we were driving home from a Ward party in Fredonia and I had to go like 20 MPH on the highway. Talk about scary! I am so thankful we have that 4 wheel drive jeep now though! The storm that night was so bad that our stake ended up cancelling church!!!! And we ended up being on lockdown from our mission president until 3 anyway! Is it bad that I consider that a tender mercy because I had so much packing and area book updating to do!? It was so weird to be in the apartment that long though and not be able to take the sacrament and I didn't even get to say bye to people at church. Maybe it's easier that way though..

Speaking of ward parties, we went to 3 this week! We got quite a few less-active families to come which was amazing!!!! It was good to be able to see lots of the members too so I was able to say goodbye because I knew transfer calls were coming up and figured it was my time to go :(

So we will leave tomorrow morning bright and early! My new companion is Sister Phagwah and she is from Guyana! She has just been out 3 months, the same time as Sister Hollander. So I don't know her but heard she is really sweet. I am excited because I'm gonna have her teach my spanish! Wahoo! Oh and we will be in the Washington East and I'll be back in the Visitors Center. I am excited to be there for Christmas.. That should be fun!

Well I better get going!!!! I'll talk to ya'll next Tuesday, thats when my Pday will be this transfer! Love you all!

Mission office:
107 S 1470 E STE 304

St George, UT 84790

 My new companion is sitting next to me in the green cardigan!

December 3, 2013- Its Christmas in Kanab!

Hello! How's it going? This week has been really good! I'm really starting to stress because transfer calls are this Saturday!!!!!! Ah pray I will stay here!

Last Pday was fun, we went and took some pictures for Christmas Cards with the other sisters and today we are going to ZIONS!! I've been here 4 months and haven't gone yet so I decided we better go now before one of us goes and before it gets any colder! Which btw the high tomorrow is 32 degrees! Yep, we're going to die. Our heater broke during the middle of the night this week but thankfully it got fixed the next day so we are good there. :)

Thanksgiving was good! Kinda weird, but that's holidays on the mission haha! We first went to Donna and Dicks (LA/PM family) and just talked with them for a while. They are pretty old and none of their family was coming over so we thought we would give them company. And it was good! Usually when we go over there we are just cleaning for them so it's harder to get into gospel discussions but we were able to this time so it was good. We then went over to the Bowman's. Sister Bowman is Tobi's fellowshipper so we have really gotten to know her over the past month or so. Anyways, they have 9 kids and the oldest is on a mission in Canada! But it was fun!!! Good to be with a big family and lots of commotion. I felt at home. Haha! We got to help prepare some food, play games with the kids, and then of course EAT! They decided to have ham this year instead of Turkey and it was really good actually. I've always thought of my self as a turkey lover and not too into ham but it was really good. We then went over to the Reidhead's who have a daughter on a mission too! We just hung out with them for a while and ate some pie. Which they sent us home with a whole chocolate pie from Houston's Restaurant! Yaaa we are still working on it. We then went to go play games at the Beehive Nursing Home but turns out most of the tenants were with their families so we didn't  We ended our night at the Brower's (LA family) and got to watch Ephraim's Rescue with them! Ahhh it was so good!!!!! I loved it so much!!!! The pioneers are true examples! I can not believe all that they went through for this gospel but I could not be more grateful for them and their faith that they had!

Speaking of Tobi, she is still so great!!!! Her baptism is next weekend so this week we are just trying to put everything together and not stress about one of us leaving. She is so cute. Last time we went to her house as she is hugging is she says "You better not leave. Can I call your President and tell him you're not leaving!" I was tempted to give her his phone number because I really don't want to leave but than I remember it's not up to him. It's up to the Lord so we told her she's gotta tell the big guy upstairs! Haha she's so cute! I love her so much!!!!

We met with Jim and Sue a few times this week! When we were following up on their Book of Mormon reading ahhh it was so good! So Sue says "I told myself I was only going to read 1 page a week, because I don't want to pressure myself." and then Jim goes "Ya, and you've read 7 pages in 1 week!" Oh my goodness, it was so funny and so great! We could not have been more happy!!!!! She hasn't gained that firm testimony on the Book of Mormon yet but that's alright. Some things take time. But Jim has gained such a strong testimony!!!!!! It was so awesome to hear him bear testimony to her! Because he just started reading the Book of Mormon for the first time too! On Saturday there was a Christmas Parade down the main street. Yep by 1 of the 2 lights in town haha. Anyways, Sue texted was that day and asked if we would like to go with them to the parade. What!? We were so excited. It's so little but so exciting as missionaries. We are supposed to have contact with them at least every other day and she is the one texting us! So great! So we met them down there and watched it with them. We then walked around with them looking at all the floats after wards and looking at Christmas lights. Jim's brother does one of the Christmas lights show where the lights go to the music. So cool! Anyways, it was a really good bonding experience!

Before the parade we went to the Kanab sisters baptism because they invited a non-member in our area to go named Troy and he did! So we got his information and are going to start teaching him tomorrow! We are so excited, he sounds super prepared!!!!

Well yesterday we had Zone Conference it St George and it was sooo good! Elder Arnold from the quorum of the seventy came and was so intense! and some how we ended up in the very front row right in the center. You know that had to be Sister Hollander because I always like to hide in the back haha. Anyways, I took sooo much from it and am excited to apply it in our area! Too much to type right now haha.

Oh We got a brand spanking new 2014 Jeep Compass this week! Yep, the only one in the mission and we got it. It is sooo nice!

Embarrassing story (It seems like this should just be a part of my weekly emails with how life has been going latley haha): So there was one day last week I was just so tired!!!!! During companionship study we were reading from Preach My Gospel together and next thing I know I was out! I just fell asleep and I don't even know how! My companion just starred and started laughing which woke me up. It was only a minute, no worries. But that whole day I was just dead. I had to drive back from Colorado City to Kanab and I thought I was going to pass out. I remember at one point saying "I have been tired on my mission but I just feel reeaalll tired." and then at the end of that night I was thinking maybe I was getting sick because I was just out of it! Well, the next morning I go to take my vitamins and I realize that I had taken a melation (AKA Sleeping pill that knocks me out!!) instead of one of my vitamins! Ahhh never again. I was so dead all day!

Anyways, sorry I feel like this email is all scatter-brained! But I gotta get going so we can go to ZIONS! I love you all!!!!!