flowers

o

Monday, September 29, 2014

Women`s Conference


Hey family,

Well this week was a stressful one, lots of things to do! We found some really cool people and some new families and we are really excited about them so hopefully they progress. So we had the opportunity this week to go to the Womens Conference and honestly it was so inspired. We worked really hard and we were able to have two of our recent converts and one of our investigators come. While the others were watching it in the chapel, me and my companion and another sister went to the stake presidents office so that we could watch it in English. We have been talking a lot about the importance of temples and keeping covenants with our recent converts so we were really happy that the talks were all focused on that. Also we had an investigator there that we are hoping will accept a baptismal date for the 25th of October. She was also really inspired. We went to church yesterday and not a lot of investigators came but Francis ( the man who got baptized last week) brought his nephew and his brother. After church they bothed asked us if they could get baptized!!!! We were so excited! We have never taught them before but we are hoping to help them progress. We have a baptism of 13-year-old girl named Ariana! She is so excited for her baptism and so are we. Something that President Uchtdorf said in his talk really inspired me, he said, " Do you really think that Heavenly Father cares if your make-up, hair, nails and clothes are perfect?" That really hit me because being here in the jungle, my hair, make-up, clothes and nails are sooooo far from perfect. With regard to worldly beauty I have very little but that is not what is important to God, he is just happy that we are doing his work. Well, elections are next week in Peru so we will not be able to watch conference until October 12th but I hope you all enjoy it and feel inspired by the words of the prophets..... I will be sitting here watching election campaigns! Love you!

Love,
Hermana Allphin


Monday, September 22, 2014

The Chauca Family


Hola Familia!
Well this week was another crazy week filled with lots of adventures. First of all the Chauca family got baptized this week and let me tell you, their baptism did not go down without a fight. Satan really put every obstacle in our way but in the end it all worked out. This family has had such a struggle to get baptized but they finally beat Satan and they followed the example of Jesus Christ. They are some of the most special people I have ever met and they will forever be in my heart. They really are converted and I am so happy that the Lord placed them in my life. Every day I see people fall into the many traps and temptations that the adversary has set up and it really brings such joy to my heart when I see someone who has fallen many times, rise above those temptations and follow the Savior. There are not words to describe it. I also had another really cool experience this week.  So as Sister Leaders we do work visits with the sisters to help them out. So this we did a work visit and I went to another area to work with a greenie from Utah J They have a baptismal date that we had to go teach….. the only problem was that their baptismal date is from Brazil and speaks NO Spanish! She can understand it a little bit but she only responds in Portuguese. It was me with another Gringa that is still learning Spanish. She told me, “Hermana Allphin, I can’t really understand her at all so you are going to have to help me teach this lesson.” I prayed before the lesson that the spirit would bless me with the gift of tongues. We went into the lesson and we started teaching in Spanish and we said a prayer and just went for it. We would say something in Spanish and she would respond in Portuguese and it was a little hard but, I understood everything she was saying perfectly! The spirit was so strong in the lesson because he was really there helping us teach and understand even though we were speaking two different languages. I think my next feat will be to learn Portuguese, I kind of like it a lot. The gift of tongues is real family, I testify to that. If two white girls from Utah can go and teach a lesson in Spanish and understand everything in Portuguese….then the gift of tongues is real. Don’t doubt it! I love you all, enjoy the pictures. Talk to you next week!
Love,
Hermana Allphin

The Chauca Family. I love them sooo much!
Raquel`s Baptism
Leaving Tarapoto.... Hermana Martha
stake activity..... being angels in the choir :) Yes, we are wearing baptismal clothes!

Monday, September 15, 2014

Pucallpa- Sister Leader Trainer :)


Hola Familia J
Well I dont even know where to start with this week. First of all, transfers. So I did get transferred out of Tarapoto and I was assigned to work in the city of Pucallpa! I was so excited because I have wanted to come to this city my whole mission. Pucallpa is the farthest city away from Iquitos, it is actually closer to Cusco. Tuesday I got on a plane and left Tarapoto and then I had to fly to Lima (freezing cold!) and then I got on a plane and came to Pucallpa (sooooo hot!!!) I really love this place though. Another big surprise about these transfers was that I got called to be the new Sister Leader Trainer for this zone! The church made this new calling for sister missionaries about two years ago and basically what it is that me and my companion are kind of responsible for all of the sisters here in this city (there are 10 ) with respect to their health and wellbeing. We have to do work visits, obedience checks, doctors’ visits and trainings. We work with the district and zone leaders so that we can help the Sisters in every way possible. It is a big responsibility but I am really excited to fulfill it. I am now in Zone Centenario and my ward is called Ucayali! We had a baptism on Saturday of a woman named Raquel and she is the sweetest person ever. Her baptism was so spiritual. We have another family that is getting baptized this Saturday and they are the cutest family ever. I hope that we don’t have problems this week and that their baptism will go smoothly. My new companion`s name is Hermana Kirk…… and do you know what? We are in the same group! I met her in the airport in Salt Lake City right before coming on my mission. She is from Utah and we literally are the best of friends. I am excited to be serving in this ward with this companion. Well family, that is all I have for you this week. It was a really crazy rewarding week J talk to you soon!
Love,
Hermana Allphin

Monday, September 8, 2014

We are with you


Hola familia!!
Wow fam I have a lot to tell you this week. So first of all I have a couple spiritual experiences and then I have a really funny story just for my little brother! So my zone leaders gave us such a cool training the other day. Things right now are hard in the mission and there are a lot of missionaries really struggling but its fine, we will all get through it. My zone leaders gave us a training about the atonement that was super cool. First my zone leader started out by asking us to think about what we were doing while we were watching down from heaven as the Savior suffered the atonement. Did we hear his cries or count his steps? Then he asked us very simply, “If you were watching the Savior from heaven suffer for your sins, what would you have said to him?” That was such a profound question and really I could not think of anything that would be worth saying. After that my other Zone Leader got up and gave us his training and then at the end he paused and said, Really, I don’t know what we would have said while watching the Savior suffer for us but I think it would have been something simple like “We are with you” that seriously touched my heart because that is the exact same thing that the Savior now says to us when we are going through trials, “I am with you.” Really it is something that I will always remember. Also we contacted someone in the street the other day and then out of nowhere he came to church and could feel peace and the spirit even though his wife died a couple months ago.  He lives alone so the elders are going to go visit him but he says he wants to be a member of the church….. Golden contact! Alright hunty are you ready? Well this is what happened to me the other night.  So we always leave our window open at night because it is so incredibly hot and we have a big mirror that leans up against the window on the window sill. So the other night at like 1:30 in the morning we hear this huge crashing sound! We both got startled and woke up and my companion saw a big black thing run under my bed and then a couple seconds later we hear the horrible sound of a crying cat!! My companion turned on the light and I jumped on her bed while she jumped on my bed with a copy of the Liahona trying to get this cat out of the house. We were jumping across the beds for like ten minutes trying to get the cat out of the house while this thing was like screaming. Finally it ran out and the mirror was completely shattered! We decided to worry about it in the morning and just go back to sleep. Just when we were about to get back in bed we smelled the most awful smell in the whole world… seriously! We moved my bed and this dumb cat had like diarrhea pooped and peed all under my bed. On my shoes, suitcase everything!!! Oh my gosh it was so disgusting! We spent like half an hour cleaning it up. We threw dirt and detergent and soap and lots of other things but really, our house still smells bad! It is just another testimony that I HATE CATS!  Well hunty, I hope you liked my story. We put pieces of the broken mirror to the window to use as a mirror and now it just looks like we are spying on the neighbors…. Oh mission life! Well I love you all; I hope you have a wonderful week. Talk to you soon!
Love,
Hermana Allphin

Monday, September 1, 2014

For Those Who Have Nothing



Hola Familia!
Well this week I had a way cool experience that I want to share with you. For some time now we have been visiting two single mothers named Rodith and Daylith. They both have many small children and their husbands have been sentenced to jail for 15 years. They live in a little village called Satelite that is a thirty minute hike up some really steep stairs and through a cemetery.  Last week we decided to stop working in that area and work in some different parts because we weren’t having any success. We thought they would think anything of it. This week however I had the impression that we should make the thirty minute hike to go and visit these two women. The idea didn’t make any sense because we didn’t have any appointments up there but we went any way. It was an extremely hot day and as we were climbing up the stairs I was thinking to myself if it was really worth it, but we still kept going.  When we got to the first woman´s house she opened the door and seriously was over-joyed! She was like, “Hermanas where have you been!! We have been so worried about you. We thought you had abandoned us!” I was so over-whelmed by her response. We taught them both a really good lesson about the Plan of Salvation and after the lesson they both looked at us and said, “Thank you for coming to visit us. Please always come to our house.” One of the women came to church yesterday. We also are visiting a little old grandma named Hilda Flor that is a member but can now not come to church because of her health. She is 94- years-old. We stop by every week to go and visit her and every time when she says the closing prayer she says, “Thank you for sending my sister missionaries to me. They bring my joy and happiness and they bring me your blessings. Thank you that they have not forgotten about me.” So do you want to know what lesson I learned this week? For people who have absolutely nothing, the light of Christ means everything. One visit from us means more than anything in the world to them and it literally brings them joy. Talk about humble right? Maybe we are not having a million baptisms but I am certain that we are doing exactly what the Savior would do if he was here in our place because he loves them more than we can imagine. That is what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. I am so glad that I have the opportunity to be a missionary. I love you all so much. Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Hermana Allphin



My hair is now super curly. Dont know how that happened....... havent touched a curling iron in a year!

This is hermana Hilda Flor. I love her so much!