On Saturday we had virtual exchanges with the Clondalkin sisters! Sister Ambler and I searched every person named Juan in their area on Facebook and started to add them and message them. I told her, “see, now THIS is doing missionary work the way the Saviour would do it: Juan by Juan.”
That's pretty much what we do to find people these days. Simple as that, there ain't much to it! All you gotta do is diddily do it.
And then when our new friends respond, we get to know them, we invite them to learn English by reading the Book of Mormon or meet in the park with us + the Brazilian recent converts every Saturday and Sunday!
The craziest part to me is that it...works? I've taught more lessons in quarantine than the rest of my mission combined. Probably. I don't actually keep track.
Speaking of tracks, God did a lot of track shifting this week, and it feels right now even if it hurts. The biggest change is that Sister Blatter's extension was denied so she's going home on Saturday.
The other fun slap in the face was when we all showed up to the church for David's baptism and the font was broken! David is my brother in Christ. He has one of the strongest testimonies and tender souls I've ever met. So when he raised his hands up to heaven and said a mighty prayer that the water would flow out of the taps, I 1000% believed it was about to start gushing out like a firehose. But alas, he prayed that it would happen in the Lord's timing, and as it turned out that wasn't Wednesday.
He's ok though. Sister Blatter called him the next day while I was frying tofu and I heard him yell, “SISTER ALLEN. OHHHH those cookies you made me. MAN they were DELICIOUS. I could not BELIEVE how good they tasted for my breakfast this morning. I thought to myself, well even if I wasn't baptized yesterday, I have Sister Allen's cookies.”
Then we got ANOTHER fun message the next day saying that the bishop realized he wasn't in our area and that we need to pass him to the Terenure ward before he can be baptized. That ward will be amazing for him and to him so once again, everything is going to be ok. That's what we get for praying for humility this week I guess.
Well that's me, folks! How was your week?
By the way, I've been reading A Marvelous Work and a Wonder by LeGrand Richards and there's like, NO WAY this church isn't true.
Yesterday we went over to Ivana's house to do an FHE about Family History with her and her two children Jamie and Claire. I told them the story of my great grandmother, Ann Jewel Rowley, the woman in 17 miracles who put 2 hard sea biscuits into a dutch oven and prayed, and it turned into a full pot of food! I made a magic trick for them! They put two oat biscuits into a tin with a fake bottom then when we opened it back up it was full of sweets for them. Lol. They liked it, I teared up when reading her account of the miracle, we all felt the spirit, all was well. Then I called some ward members while Sister Blatter started packing, OOF!
When I called dear old Tomas, he gave me three questions to ask myself everytime I read my scriptures. I invite you to try them out this week!
☆What does the savior want me to find?
☆What does he want me to do with it?
☆How on Earth am I going to do it?
Life changes when we start to approaching it deliberately with questions like these.
Good times!
WHELP, when times get hard, just remember that once upon a time, during that “august council” as it is called in Jesus The Christ, we all CHOSE to come to Earth because we knew it would be worth it! AND IT TOTALLY IS! YOU ARE HERE TO HAVE JOY AND THAT JOY WILL COME AS YOU DO WHAT IS RIGHT. Don't let the world make you hardened to that divine Truth.
What can I do for you? Let me know!
♡♡♡,
Sista AL-N (my street name)
