Whelp, you know what they say! When you're wearing rose colored glasses, all the red flags just look like normal flags! Sister Wood and I have just been having so much fun that we didn't even realize until our heads were agonizingly itchy that we'd befriended a family of lice on our adventures. We've been in some rather interesting places and pet some rather interesting dogs recently, so there's no way of knowing exactly where they came from. Needless to say, this was not the kind of family I was talking about when I prayed to find families.
On Tuesday night, after a particularly lovely day (we brought a Dutch Book of Mormon to our best friend Karin from the Netherlands and she held it close to her heart and cried, saying it was the first Dutch book she'd seen in 30 years and could feel Gods love and power just RADIATING from it) Sister Wood asked me to check her head and sure enough, after looking at her scalp through my binoculars (pro tip: they turn into a microscope if you look through them upside down) we found some cute little guys scurrying around! Unfortunately that means we violated page 46 of the missionary handbook which states that we're not allowed to have pets. We turned our kitchen into a laboratory and used my happy lamp to get a closer look at the specimens and our mission president's wife confirmed and quarantined us. As we combed and cleaned for hours on Wednesday, we listened to several Jeffery R Holland talks.
One of them is called Lessons from Liberty Jail and it talks about turning our trials into temples! That day of combing was a turning point for my mission. Even though this was one of the hardest weeks of my missions, it was the happiest. Jeffery R Holland counseled us to look at the hard times through a new light. As I pondered the painting of Joseph smith in liberty jail looking at the light coming through the window, the scripture came to mind, “Look unto me in every thought, doubt not, fear not." Jesus Christ is the light. When we look to the light during hard times, it becomes a holy place. Even though this week was one slammed door after the next, God consecrated our efforts and we met some lovely people I'm excited to update you on next week! In the meantime, look to the light!
For an extra challenge, look up D&C 60:2-3, which Sister Wood shared in fast and testimony meeting and ponder ways to take action on it.
I love you all! I love the rain and I love our savior. Keep dancing in it!
xxxxx
Sister Allen
