Miracles and lots of rain!

Hola Familia!

Well it was another wonderful week filled with lots of missionary work. First off, it literally rained all week long!! Every single day we came in soaked from head to toe with our feet and ankles covered in mud…. Haha gotta love Iquitos! We had two really cool miracles this week. First of all, we have a couple that is preparing for marriage and baptism on February 7^th. We have been working really hard this week to get all of their wedding papers done. We went to their house on Wednesday to pick up her birth certificate and when we got there she told us that her mom had sent her a huge file of papers but that she didn’t think that the birth certificate was in there. My heart sank because my zone leaders told me that the offices have been searching high and low for this birth certificate and that they had not been able to find it. We were banking on the hope that maybe she would receive it from her mom and when she told me it wasn’t there I started to get nervous. Finding a birth certificate in the middle of the jungle of someone who was born in a little river village…. Is literally one of the hardest things in the world to do! Anyway, we went to the government building and I was just praying the whole time. When we walked into the office the marriage lady started looking through the papers and was just like no this is not it, this is not it and then…. She found the copy of the birth certificate. Somehow it had been tucked in the some of the other papers. We had to go to another government building and update the birth certificate and then we brought it back to office and we opened the marriage folder, gave her all of the papers, printed the marriage edict, and published it in the newspaper…. And everything is now ready for their wedding on the 7^th!!! Seriously, there are miracles in this world. The Lord really pulled some big strings for us there and helped us find the birth certificate. We also had a baptism this Saturday of a woman named Veronica. She recently gave birth to twin little girls and she is awesome. Her parents have wanted her to get baptized in the Baptist church since she was a little girl but she told us that it never felt right. She has been meeting with the missionaries for a couple months now and despite the fact that she was sick with her pregnancy and had to have a C-section with her twins, she still came to church and had all of her interviews. She told us that when she came to church, she felt really good and she knew she should be baptized. She will be a faithful member of the church here in Punchana and I am grateful to have met her. Her baptism was really beautiful and we could all feel the spirit. To answer your question mom, I am not in my former ward that I was in last year in Iquitos; I am in a different part of the city in a different ward and area. I love you all; I hope you have a great week!

Love,

Hermana Allphin

Veronica`s Baptism :)

This kid is so funny!! His name is Thiago Cece. He is the son of one of our investigators.

My convert is going on a mission!!

Hola Familia!

Hey guys this week has been so crazy! So first of all I got transferred last Monday. I got transferred from the beautiful city of Pucallpa back to the wonderful city of……. Iquitos! Yes it is true, I got transferred back to Iquitos for my last transfer. At first I was a little sad because I really love Pucallpa but the Lord knows what is best.  Monday night I packed up my bags and said goodbye to all of my converts and Tuesday morning I was on a plane heading to Iquitos. My new ward is called Punchana and my new companions name is Hermana Tinta. She is from a small little village town in Bolivia and it has been an interesting experience being with her.  Her mother is a native Indian and her dad is a drunk. Before coming on a mission she had never used a fork, slept on a mattress or heard a word of English. She is so cute and eager to learn and it has been a really humbling experience listening to her stories because I have realized how much the Lord has blessed my life and the lives of everyone around me.  The new area I am in is really hard. It is really small and we got put on the rich side of town. Everyone is catholic and no one wants to let us in or even listen to us. This is definitely the hardest area that I have had on my mission! We do have two people with baptismal dates though so that is good. I had the coolest experience this week. We showed up at District Meeting and we were waiting for the leaders and I saw a member that had been in my ward in Internacional, my area in Iquitos last year. I began talking with him about my converts and how the ward is doing and he told me, “Hermana Allphin, Marco is going on a mission!” Marco is a 18- year-old boy that Hna Hernandez and I had the privilege of teaching and baptizing last March. When we first found him he was living a hard life. He had an abusive father, his family was pretty much desolate and he wanted nothing to do with the church. We worked with this family for a long time and then last February he told us, “Hermanas, I want to be an Elder.” I kind of just laughed and told him that baptism was the first step. He was baptized with his little brother and sister and his mom was baptized a couple months later. I can’t even begin to tell you the love I have for this family. Marco is such an amazing person and the joy that filled my heart when I heard that he is going on a mission was indescribable. My convert is going on a mission!!! He is going to enter the temple!!! He is going to the Guatemala, Guatemala City South mission and he leaves in April!!! I am so excited. Missionary work really pays off sometimes. I love you family; I hope you have a wonderful week!

Love,

Hermana Allphin

Transfers. First I was her trainer and then her leader. I love this girl!

Saying goodbye to converts. The Chauca Family

Goodbye to converts!

Crazy Dreams!

Hola Familia!

Wow this has been one of the best weeks in my whole mission. We have worked so hard and our key indicators were awesome! We had almost 30 lessons!!! We were very excited about that :) So we had a little miracle this week. Last week we found a man named Alfredo who had been meeting with the missionaries about a year ago but had not had any contact with since. We started teaching him last week and he came to church. We went back this week on Tuesday and we had a really funny lesson with him. Fun fact about the Peruvians: They are visionary people. Everyone here has crazy dreams and they think that they are answers to their prayers. We asked Alfredo if he had prayed and he said yes. We asked him if he had recieved and answer and he said that he had, because God had told him in a dream. He proceeded to tell us his dream and it was probably one of the funniest things I have ever heard. He said that in his dream he was with my companion Hermana Linford and they were walking down a road. Then Hna Linford pulled out a big metal wheel that they use on the Motokars here. She proceeded to open the wheel (somehow there was a zipper on the wheel) and inside the wheel was the Batman insignia... the big black Bat sign. She proceeded to tell him that God had locked that in the wheel so that the bad couldnt come out. After that he stopped and looked at us and said, " That was my answer from God that the Book of Mormon is true." I had no words. I asked him what he thought his dream meant and he said that it means God has all of the bad locked up in one place and he wont let it out. I know it really doesnt make sense but it was so hilarious. He accepted a baptismal date for the 24th of January. When we went backon Thursday he told us that he couldnt get baptized anymore because he had already been baptized in an Evangelical church and he couldnt get baptized again. We explained the restoration again and the Book of Mormon but he was still adamant that he was not going to get baptized again. I then felt prompted to ask him about the Holy Ghost. I asked him if he had recieved the Holy Ghost in his prior baptism by the laying on of hands and he said no. My companion then shared the story in Acts 8 about how the apostles had to go to Samaria and baptize a bunch of people again so that they could give them the Holy Ghost. He stayed silent for a moment and then said, " Well it looks like I am getting baptized on the 24th then because I want to recieve the Holy Ghost." He told us he would keep praying to strengthen his testimony about the Book of Mormon but he came to church yesterday and he is still preparing for his baptism in two weeks. We are very excited. We have a couple other people with baptism dates which makes me a little sad because transfers are today and I am probably going to get transfered and miss their baptisms. Oh well, como Dios quiere. This week was full of miracles and have loved every minute that I have had to serve here in Ucayali. I love you all, have a wonderful week :)

Love,

Hermana Allphin

Last district meeting!

Leadership Conference

Hola Familia!

Bueno, this week was crazy as always but we recieved many blessings. My companion was in the hospital due to Dengue on Monday and Tuesday and we were finally able to leave but then on Wednesday we flew to Iquitos for leadership conference and we didnt get back to Pucallpa until Friday afternoon. Leadership counsel was soooo good though. We really were so spiritually edified as leaders and we were ready to get back to our zones and work hard. We really were able to understand that as leaders, we are examples to the rest and if we arent doing our best we cant help others progress either. I really am so grateful to my Heavenly Father that he has given me the opportunity to be a Sister Trainer Leader these last five months. Me and my companion have ten sisters under us here in Pucallpa and as leaders we get the chance to work with them and visit them every week. We talk to their district and zone leaders frequently to see how they are doing and how we can help them. We go with them to the clinic when they are sick or have problems....... I have been in the doctors office way to many times in the last couple of months. Oh well, I guess that is what happens when you put a bunch of young girls in the jungle..... they get sick :) We do work visits and obedience checks and I really just love it. I have been able to get to know the whole city of Pucallpa instead of just my own area. I really love the companionships of sisters here that the Lord has called me to serve, I have been able to learn a lot of charity and my life has been blessed. At first I really didnt know why the Lord had called me to be a leader, but I am starting to understand it was because He wanted to give me this extra opportunity of service here on my mission, and I really cherish it more than anything. I hope to finish out my mission as a Sister Leader but I guess we will see. This Sunday Pilar was able to get confirmed and we were really happy about that. I really love her! Also it was fast Sunday and me and my companion were specifically fasting that we would have enough investigators in church to be able to complete out baptismal and rescue goals for this month. My some miracle and a lot of mercy from the Lord, we had exactly enough less-actives and investigators come to church to be able to complete our goal. Now we just have to help them all accept baptismal dates. The Lord works on our side, he really does. I hope you all had a wonderful new year..... I was in Iquitos sleeping on the floor being eaten by mosquitos.....gotta love the mission :) I love you all!

Love, 

Hermana Allphin

Long Week

Hola Familia!

Well I really dont even know where to start with this week. It really was one of the longest weeks ever. To start out, it was Christmas and absolutely no one had time for the missionaries..... meaning we walked outside in the hot sun for hours, looking for anyone to teach. We went caroling in the plaza de armas on Wednesday morning which was really fun! On Christmas Eve both me and my companion didnt feel very well but when we tried to go to sleep we were woken up by the loud WW 2 fireworks that were going off outside our window at midnight....... hahaha gotta love Christmas in Peru :) Christmas was way fun, we woke up and played soccor as zone and then we talked to our families which is always the highlight of the day :) After we went to the stake center and played volleyball and the we watched Ephraim´s Rescue..... such a good movie. However, when we got back from the activity I was really sick and the zone leaders came and gave me a blessing and my companion went and worked with a member. Later that night I couldnt sleep because my fever was so high and I was throwing up all of the water in my body.... it was a really long night! The next day my companion was really sick but I was feeling a little better. I got some medicine and have been recuperating but my companion was getting worse. We went to the clinic last night and found out she has Dengue so they put her in the hospital and we slept in the hospital last night! There was no bed for me so I had to sleep on the guerney table..... it was sooo uncomfortable. I hope that my companion gets better and that she can leave the hospital today! We also had a baptism on Saturday of a girl named Pilar. We have been teaching her for a while now and I am so excited that she finally got baptized. Her baptism was really spiritual and we had a good time... however, she didnt come to church on Sunday to get confirmed because her baby was sick :( I was really sad. That is the first time that this has happened to me. I hope she will get confirmed this next Sunday! All in all it was a really long week but this week is going to be much better. It was so good to see and talk to all of you on Christmas, I hope you all enjoy your Christmas vacations! Love you!

Love,

Hermana Allphin

Opening Presents :)

Indian Nativity

in the hospital with my compy

Pilar´s Baptism :)

Teaching King Lamoni

Hey family!

Well this week was pretty normal with all of the craziness of missionary work. We have been working hard this week to find some prepared people and we have had some interesting experiences. First of all we found this guy last week named Vladimir Viena.... my companion and I were laughing so hard because that name is so vampirish.... his friends call him Vladi :) He came to church yesterday and he is praying to know if he should get baptized. He is really cool and we hope that he progresses. Okay now for one of the funniest experiences of my whole mission. Last week Nancy (our recent convert) brought someone to church with her. We went to visit her this week and we found out that the girl she had brought to church was a girl that was now living with them and helping them around the house. Obviously we decided that we should teach her. This girls name is Alicia and she is 18-years-old. She seemed really cool and everything but as we started talking to her we found out that she lives in a little indian village like 10 miles up the river......when I say indian I am talking pure indian here! She has never heard of God, she has no idea who Jesus Christ is and she has never heard of the word sin...... also another catch is that she speaks this old indian dialect called Shipibo.... that is the language the native indian tribes speak here. Guys.... I dont speak Shipibo!! Also in the culture down here, the native indians are terrified of white people. They call us "pela caras" which translates into face peeler. They think that white people only come to peel their faces and steal their organs. Alright so now you can all imagine how this first lesson went. It was the hardest thing I have ever done in my life!!! For the first time ever I felt so much empathy for Ammon and his brothers. I seriously felt like I was teaching King Lamoni! We are going to try and keep teaching her even though she speaks broken spanish and is terrifyed of us! But the Lord found a way for her to hear the gospel even though she has grown up in an uncivilized community in the middle of the jungle. The lord works in mysterious ways. We are going to do the best we can with her. I love you all, talk to you on Thursday!!

Love,

Hermana Allphin

Enrique´s Baptism

Hola Familia

Well just another crazy week of missionary week. We had some very bitter sweet moments this week. I guess I will start with the bitter. The Dávila Family, the family that we have been working with for the last 3 and a half months didn’t get baptized this Saturday. We went to visit them on Tuesday night and they were super good. They are reading their Book of Mormon and saying their prayers every night and they told us that they were super excited for their baptism on Saturday. However, Thursday they didn’t show up for their final interview. They were not in their house and they would answer their phone. We went by that night to talk to them and we only found Xiomara. We walked into to talk to her and ask her about her interview and she proceeded to tell us that she found out that Oliver had cheated on her. I couldn’t contain the tears. I am not one to cry but after months of such hard work, months of praying and fasting for this family, months of teaching them and helping them….. just for it to end like that. It was hard. They didn’t come to church yesterday and we haven’t been able to talk to Oliver. Their baptismal date fell two days before their baptism. Talk about heartbreaking! I guess that Lord has a plan for everything right? We did have a baptism of a little 9-year-old boy named Enrique. We have been teaching him for the last couple of months as well and his baptism was so awesome. After he was baptized he bore his testimony and it was the sweetest thing I have ever heard. He said, “Before the Sisters came to my house I didn’t know anything about God. Now they have taught me about the Restoration, the Plan of Salvation and the Word of Wisdom. Now I know that God has a plan for all of us and he has a plan for me and my family. He gives us trials so that we can be better and I am grateful that I am now a member of the true church of Jesus Christ.” What a testimony from a nine year old right? His aunt is a very active member and she is happy that she is now not the only member in her family. I was a very sweet experience. We had our Christmas Devotional this week for Zone Conference and it was very spiritual. We talked about how here on the mission we have the best Christmas ever because we are here serving the Lord. It doesn’t matter that it is over 100 degrees every day or that I am always covered in dust…… we are all in the service of the Lord and that is what allows us to be away from our loved ones for so long. I cant wait for Christmas to come! Shay, congratulations on your call! I love you sooo much and I know that the Lord has a great work for you to do. You will be amazing in Canada J I hope you all have a wonderful week, talk to you soon!

Love,

Hermana Allphin

Christmas Devotional

                    Getting ready for Christmas :)

Enrique´s Baptism

Looking over the river