Lots of rain, lots of blessings :)

Hola Familia!! 

Haha it is so funny to try and write you all every week because our
weeks are so crazy and filled with so many things that I don’t even
remember what I have done that day and it is really hard to remember
the things I want to tell you. We worked really hard this week and we
found some really good people. It has rained constantly this week and
I have put to good use my rain boots. We come home every day just
covered in mud from the rain. Thank heavens I brought tall boots! We
are really excited for this month of April and we have found some
interesting people. Fun story, the other night we were walking in the
street and we were both a little bummed because all of our
appointments had fallen through and we really didn’t know where we
were going to go and then all of the sudden this like 17 year old girl
appears out of nowhere and says, “ Hi I’m Jennifer, me and my family
just moved here from a different ward and no we live in this ward. My
whole family are  members except for my dad. My dad wants to get
married to my mom and he wants to get baptized. Do you guys have a
couple minutes to come meet with my family?” I was absolutely blown
away! I mean really can you talk about a miracle. We are really
excited to plan their wedding so that their dad can get baptized and
be united with his family. There are miracles in the mission, we see
it every day. We are a little bit stressed right now but I know the
lord is going to take care of us and he is preparing people every day.
The work is hastening, Iquitos Peru is a living testimony of that. I
love you all! Have a great week  don’t forget about me melting and
covered in mud out here in the Amazon jungle 
Love,
Hermana Allphin

Hunter's Jaguar

Lima :)

Hola Familia!!
Wow this week was so crazy but it was really good. So first of all I
got to go to Lima this week with all of my friends to get my visa. I`m
FINALLY LEGAL!! After 7 months it’s about time  It was really so fun
because in my mission we have a couple Zones in the city of Iquitos
and we have a couple Zones that are way out in the Jungle. I am in
Iquitos but I have a lot of friends from the MTC that have been way
out in the jungle and we never see them because you have to fly to get
there so I haven’t seen them in like 5 months. We got to this really
nice hotel in Lima late at night and we all ate dinner and we were
just talking and then the next morning we went to immigration and we
met all of the missionaries in the CCM that are headed out to the
field this week and so that was really fun. In total we went with 18
North American missionaries from Iquitos and it was seriously the
best. The weather was beautiful and a nice change from blistering hot
Iquitos! We got to go walk around the temple and go shopping and eat
lunch in the temple cafeteria. It was so nice to catch up with some of
my friends that I haven’t seen in a while. So transfers are today and
I am not getting a transfer. I am staying in my area with my companion
and I am totally fine with that. But my really awesome district leader
just got moved up to be the new Zone Leader in a different zone so it
will be interesting to see who my new district leader will be. We are
going into the month of April with a lot of faith because right now
the work has been kind of slow but we have the hope that the Lord is
going to pull through for us and everything will work out. Sorry I
don’t have any cool stories for you this week but I hope that everyone
is doing well and that everything is good at home. Love you all, talk
to you next week 
Love,
Hermana Allphin

Lima :)

Small and Simple Things

Hola Familia!
Wow this week was super crazy but very rewarding. First of all we had
three baptisms on Saturday that were super awesome. It was three kids
and their mom but their mom cant get baptized yet because of some
problems that she is having. This is the investigator that President
visited with us and her three kids finally got baptized. The oldest
son Marco really wants to go on a mission and he is already preparing
to leave. I know he will be an awesome missionary and it is a really a
miracle that he has made this decision. Another really cool story is
that I did a work visit with my Sister Leader this week and we went
and visited one of her investigators that is going to get baptized.
She is a single mom that I had contacted in the street like a month
ago because her two little girls were in my ward in Secada and I love
them. I saw them with their mom and she gave me her address but it
wasn’t in my area so I gave the reference to the other Sisters. We
went to visit this lady and Hermana Simonson told her, “Ya Hermana
Allphin was the one who gave me your address and that is why we came
to your house to visit you the first time.” This lady, her name is
Nelly, she just looked at me and grabbed my hand and just was like
thank you, thank you, thank you! At the end of the lesson we got up to
leave and she gave me the biggest hug ever and said, “I didn’t know it
was you who had given my name to the missionaries. I am so glad that
God put you in my path; you don’t even know how much I needed to find
Jesus in my life when you came and talked to me and you made it all
possible. You all have really been my angels. I will forever be
grateful.” I just felt so much love for her and I realized that really
all of the small and simple things that we do every day really make a
difference. She is going to get baptized with her two little girls who
I love and they love me and even though it is not my baptism I am so
excited. We had one of the seventy come and talk to us last week and
it was so inspirational and we learned so much! His name is C. Scott
Grow and he was super awesome. We are looking forward to this week and
transfers are coming up. I am headed to Lima this week to do some
paper work for my visa…. Yay! I am excited to go back to Lima for a
day or two, it should be fun  Wish me luck with my travelling. I will
talk to you all next week  Love you!
Love,
Hermana Allphin

Me at my baptism a week ago. These two boys want to go on missions :)

Me at my baptism this week! I love this family so much! :)

6 Months Already??

Hola Familia!
Wow I can`t believe that I have already been out here in the field for
6 months!! How time flies. I have changed so much and I really am so
in love with being here in Peru! I would tell you all of the stuff
that has changed but I don’t have time but one really big thing is
that my new favorite food in the whole world is chicken, rice and
fried bananas! Soooo yummy  I literally eat that all the time. So we
had two baptisms on Saturday of two 16 year old boys and it was so
awesome. They have such strong testimonies and they both want to leave
on a mission in the next year or so. Their baptism was so special! We
had a really funny experience last night, so me and my companion had
had the worst night ever! No one wanted to listen to us, we couldn’t
find anyone to teach, everyone was drunk in the street and there was
like concerts everywhere, all of our appointments fell and really we
were just so bummed. We drive by this house of a guy that we had
talked to before and I saw that his wife was inside with him so we
decided to go and talk to them. We get inside and start talking and
this guy starts telling us like everything he knows. He was talking
about philosophy and politics and the purpose of life and really we
could just tell that this guy was really smart. We started teaching
the lesson and everything and the door to their house was open. All of
the sudden I see my district leader and his companion appear in the
doorway. I was so confused because we were really deep into our area
in a little shack town far away in a random house and I could not
understand why he was there or how they had found us. Then I
remembered that they had told us that they were going to come with us
to visit with one of our other investigators that lived in this area
and for some miracle they had seen us teaching in this house. First of
all my district leader and his companion are super awesome! Like
really they are the best, I know them really well because he has been
my district leader for the last 4 months that I have been in the area.
They came in and sat down and my district leader started talking to
this guy and Elder Munoz loves deep doctrine so he gets into this
conversation with this guy and then we found out that the missionaries
one time had given this man a book of Mormon. He asked him if had read
it and the guy was like, “ Ya, I read all of it.” We were all just
trying not to laugh because that does not happen here, people don’t
read. Then he started explaining the whole book of Mormon to us with
like details and everything and he told us that he had written an
essay about it and at that point everyone lost it. We all just started
laughing because this guy was so cool; his wife was dying of laughter
and was just rolling her eyes. We walked home together just laughing
about how random it was that they found us in the house and that my
district leader and this man got along so well! It was seriously the
funniest experience and it was exactly what I needed after a long
night and I am really excited to keep teaching this guy. The Lord
really does love us. Well that is about all I have for you this week,
I am super excited for the baptisms we have on Saturday; they are
going to be awesome. I love you all!
Love,
Hermana Allphin

The Lord of the Flies

Hola Familia!
Okay so this week was really crazy I have a really good story to tell
you. The week went a little bit slow because everyone was preparing
for Carnival and no one had any time for us. Carnival is this big
holiday in Peru but it is even more celebrated here in the jungle and
I really am excited to tell you all about it. So first of all they
build these huge totem poles that are decorated with like buckets and
chairs and other stuff….. they are huge and they are all over the
place. Okay so during the whole week you just get randomly attacked by
water balloons, it was so weird. We would be walking and then we would
just get nailed with water, it was actually kind of funny! Okay but
here is the creepiest thing about this holiday is that on Sunday night
everyone goes out into the street with face paint and masks dressed up
as Devils. They dance around these huge trees with their masks and
huge drums and they worship Satan! Really it was like a scene directly
out of Lord of the Flies! Needless to say we were not allowed to leave
our houses last night. I am sure Satan was really happy that everyone
was in the street worshipping him and all the missionaries were locked
in their houses. The streets were so crazy! Don’t worry this week will
be much better! That was my fun jungle adventure for the week. We have
a baptism next week of a kid that is almost 17 and wants to go on a
mission and so we are really excited about that. I will let you know
how it goes and send pictures. Love you all! Shout out to Jantzen,
Congratulations on your mission call!! 
Love,
Hermana Allphin