This week we jumped right into lighting the world! We made some goodie bags for the homeless people around the city center (now some of our best friends), tried to set up an Iphone for an 80 yr old woman, tried to bring warm dinner to the homeless guy yesterday who's been sleeping at the church for the last 12 days but he declined since it was fast Sunday, and tried to do some wallpapering for the relief society president!
Emphasis on the "TRIED TO" on most of those haha. It was nice nevertheless to go and "do good!" as my favourite scripture in Doctrine and Covenants 6:34 invites us to do! A bit about Phyllis! She's the 80 year old woman. she's also the one who asked us what year it was a couple months ago. She still didn't remember when we went to visit her, and asked for each of our names and where we were from about 10 times each. Legend has it that in her prime she used to put glue with breadcrumbs in it on her windowsill to catch pigeons and then feed them to the missionaries and I 1000% believe it after visiting her. I'll spare you most of the details of that visit, but luckily we filmed most of it and if you buy me chickfila in 2021 l'll leak you some footage. Oh my friends, where do I start? It was a weird week so it was, and maybe I'll just leave it at that. The country is semi-open for Christmas, we got to teach Joao and Grazi with Sister Yates' grandparents (who used to be the Preston Temple President) about temples and they were so cute about it, I accused Wilson of calling me an anti-Christ and it ended in a challenge that if I read all 22 chapters of Revelation this week he has to read 22 chapters of the Book of Mormon, and we taught Oisin 3 days in a row! He is studying horticulture and has a bunch of whaling expedition posters hanging up on his wall behind him so naturally we get on great! We realized he's not actually drunk, maybe just a little dyslexic! He said the closing prayer the last time we met and we asked him how he felt afterwards and he said, "WISDOM." Couldn't have put it better myself tbh. When we pray for help, God really can help us rise above our weaknesses and articulate things in a way we wouldn't otherwise be able to! Our old friend Shepherd asked out of the blue a couple days ago if we could call, and when we did he asked if we had any good " self reflection" chapters to help him reflect on how he's changed in 2020. We read Alma 5 with him, and oh it's just a good one! I love how much it focuses on our hearts. I think I've mentioned this in a previous email, but a question about hearts that has really helped me reflect on 2020 is, "Has your heart been hardened and your faith weakened or has your heart been softened and your faith strengthened by 2020?" I have been a PENDULUM in this regard honestly. There have been sweet days and salty days and EVERYTHING in between and on both sides. Goooooood golly molly. Today's kinda one of those salty day toooo be honest. haha. SO. The good news. My brethren, "if ye have experienced a change of heart, and if ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, I would ask, can ye feel so now?" If you can, that's the best Christmas present in the world, isn't it?? And if you can't, there's no time like the present!! It's Christmas time! God's love and the healing power of Christ's atonement is as abundant to be found as off-brand polish chocolate, and that's really saying something! I found an article today about receiving the gift of God's love at Christmas time on the Church website, please read and pass it on to anyone who you think could use it right now! https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/2020/12/receive-the-gift?lang=eng I have more thoughts but I'm going to leave it at that and go make some God Loves You! stickers to stick on some poles. My prayer for you is that just like Nephi you will feel of god's love as you lose yourself in service and be able to say, "I have beheld His glory, and I am encircled about eternally in the arms of His love" and know it's true! (2 Nephi 1:15) loves, s a ps read alma 5!
Mom PS:
Several people have asked about Sister Allen's address for Christmas. Here it is:
Sister Bailee Allen
47 Block C
Smithfield Market
Dublin 7
Dublin, Ireland D07 E978
