Can I start off by saying that any of you that knew that potato scones existed but didn't tell me about them is dead to me? Probably not. But I did anyways! Consider yourselves rebuked.
Good morning and Happy New Year!
As Anne Shirley once said, "Tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet." So if you've completely botched your resolutions and made a mess of 2020 already, no need to fear! A new year starts tomorrow! And the day after! And after that! It's a pattern! It's more than that! It's the gospel of Jesus Christ! You've got an unlimited stack of vouchers for new beginnings! Redeemable anywhere that takes Visa or credit.
Well brothers and sisters, I'm on the road again. We got our moves call on Saturday and they told us that we're...staying! (Psych! We also got a car on Saturday, which is the real reason I'm on the road again. It's been 48 hours and I've already driven through more roundabouts that I did during my first year of driving in the USA. Picture this. You're on a FREEWAY going 70 MPH and the next thing you know you're approaching a dual lane roundabout. You take the second exit and it takes you into another roundabout. You find your exit and find yourself in YET ANOTHER roundabout that takes you to the wee village of Dundonald. It's exhilarating. It's innovative. It's actually genius and I hate that there aren't this many roundabouts back home!
All these roundabouts got my mind spinning and I was thinking about how my brain has completely reverted to driving on the left and I can't even picture what it's like to do the opposite anymore. It make my head hurt if I think about signalling right into a roundabout which is probably for the best anyways. Likewise, my brain has pretty much reverted to mission life at this point. If I think about sleeping in for days or spending hours scrolling through memes on my phone it makes my head hurt haha. If I even think about the good things like Uni or my YSA ward or my family too long it makes my head hurt, for goodness sake!
It is simply too painful to live in both worlds at the same time! My mission became easier and more fulfilling when I stopped trying to live both lives at the same time. I suppose it's the same way with the world in general. The Lord has asked us to leave The World behind and be one with him. That means worldly habits, worldly thoughts, worldly sins, anything that separates us from him! I've learned that they just aren't worth whatever they temporarily give us. Aspirin isn't the solution, godliness is! On the first page of Come, Follow Me it states that if we are worthy to live with the presence of the Holy Ghost, we are worthy to live in Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ's presence. Aye, so it is!! Use that as your guide, and get on your way! (Even if you've never driven in the UK before!) Anywhoo, that had never occurred to me until I read it, so I just wanted to share!
Jordan came to church yesterday! He texted us an hour beforehand and told us his bed was too comfy and he'd come next week, so we called him with as much rage as a representative of Jesus Christ is legally allotted to have (none) and he told us he was only joking and that he was on his way. Cheeky fellow.
We took advantage of how much he's been off work lately and met with him three times last week! The first was a surprise birthday party for him with a few YSA at Vanilla Joe's, and during the other two we went over some commandments.
Here is a brief collection of his reaction to the commandments:
Sabbath Day: "I was going to do that anyways, but it's cool that there are blessings attached!"Fasting: "I already fast all the time for health reasons anyways. I'm glad there are spiritual benefits too now!"Word of Wisdom: "I'm excited to see what happens when I do this. It'll be like an experiment! Am I still allowed to eat white bread?"Obey and Honor the Law: "Of course. I'm still allowed to defend myself, right?"Tithing: "CLERGY AREN'T PAID??!!!!! I'm definitely getting baptized. This all just makes so much sense to me!"
They're too personal to share, but his life has been overrun by miracles since embracing the gospel of Jesus Christ. This work is real. The power of the atonement can't be made up. Jesus Christ lives and guides each step we take!
This week we went to Paisley for New Years! No public transportation was running, so we were there for a couple days and had a lovely time with lots of other missionaries. I got to talk about rocks and birds and dinosaurs with other missionaries (#BLESSED) and we played lots of sports (#StillNotBLESSEDwhenItComesToSports)
We also had some really cool finding miracles and teaching moments this week! And lots of tender mercies just for us. Wow I just love this church! It's the best!
When we went to Sister Campbell's house yesterday she told us she was happy we're staying but is going to write to president in 6 weeks telling him we've overstayed our welcome. She also said she's going to write home to my mom telling her how troublesome I am. I can still feel the spirit though, so how bad can I be? She's a true scottish woman, and is downright addicted to Ferrero Rocher. Every Sunday Sister Christensen asks her for one from her secret stache jokingly and always gets a staunch "NO." But yesterday when she asked Sister Campbell gave her not one, but TWO since I'm not eating chocolate this month!
Bishop Gust gave me a book called "How do I know if I know?" and I was reading it this morning and it said, "You are reading this book because a teenage boy asked a question in 1820. Never underestimate the power of a teenager's question. The scriptures encourage us to ask and to ask often."
So to conclude my latest novella (SO SORRY), don't be afraid to ask, because you never know what might come of it. You might get a Ferrero Rocher, you might restore the priesthood to the earth, you might get exactly what God has in store for you. You just gotta ask!
And if there's anything I can do for you, just ask! If there's anything you wanna know, just ASK! If you want me to write shorter (or longer hehe) group emails, JUST ASK!
Enjoy your daily fresh starts!
xxx Sister Allen :)
