Dear Young Women

Dear Young Women,

First of all I want to thank you all so much for the service Project that you did to gather all of those clothes! I haven’t seen that many clothes in a long time. The day I received your package I called the young women`s president to ask her if she would like to do an activity with the young women and the clothes.  She was over joyed and told me that that night the youth had an activity in seminary and that many of the girls were not going to go because they didn’t have any church clothes. We called all of the girls right away and that afternoon they all came to the church for the activity. I set all the clothes out on the benches with your pictures and your notes and let them all choose for themselves. The girls walked in and all of their eyes immediately lit up. They all started talking and trying on the dresses and they were all looking at your pictures and admiring how beautiful you all are J They were all trying to read your cards but none of them speak English so I was playing translator the whole time J A few minutes later, a few old women walked in and one of the members explained to me that these women also did not have any clothes to wear to church and that if there were extras they wanted to look. Luckily enough they each were able to find a skirt to wear and they left the church beaming. One thing you have to understand, the people here literally have nothing. I have to hike up mountains to little jungle villages every day to teach in little shack homes. I sit on dirt floors while they cook on little camp fires in their home. To receive a new dress from someone who lives in the United States was a dream come true. The girls were able to go to their activity and many of the girls came to church yesterday for the first time in a long time…. And they were all wearing your dresses. Thank you so much for your thought and your love for your fellow young women out in the jungles of Peru J I could feel how much heavenly father loves all of us. You are all wonderful young women and you make a difference in the lives of the people that you serve, even if they live miles away in the middle of the amazon rain forest J I love you all! Thank you, from the young women of the Branch Shilcayo!

all of these pictures are of the activity we did with the clothes from the young women

women who didnt have anything to wear to church.

Celebration of San Juan!

Hola familia!

Well this week was full of all the normal frustrations of missionary life but I guess that is just the way it is.  First of all this week was the celebration of San Juan. Everyone makes their juane and goes to the river. No one wanted to listen to us because they were all making their juane…. With is rice and eggs wrapped up in a palm tree leaf. It is not my favorite thing in the world. Next surprise was that my district leader had some problems with his visa and he had to get transferred to a different mission in Ecuador! Crazy right? Our new district leader is pretty cool though. We got dropped by a lot of people but we are just gonna keep working and things will turn out okay. So yesterday at church I was playing the piano and one of my favorite little boys in the whole world came up and sat by me. He has the hardest life. He was abandoned by his mom, his dad is a drunk and he lives with his grandma. Despite all of that, he is the brightest light is a child that I have ever seen. He is one of the happiest people I have ever met. His name is David and he is 10 years old. He was watching me play the piano and he told me how much he wanted to learn. There wasn’t really much he could do but I told him he could help me. He put his feet on the pedals and pushed them down while I played the hymns. He sat next to me quietly the whole meeting, anxiously waiting for the next song so that he could help me with the pedals. At the end of sacrament he smiled, thanked me and then ran to his grandma and told her that he had helped Hermana Allphin with the piano.  I love little children. You don’t realize how much you have until you see people who have much less! I love you all so much. I hope you have a wonderful fourth of July!

Love,

Hermana Allphin

Training....take two!

Hola Familia!

Wow this week was so packed full of things I don’t even know where to start. First of all we had transfers on Monday and much to our surprise, Hermana Lozano got transferred to Iquitos!! I was a little bit sad because we got along really well and we only had one transfer together but oh well. The next surprise came when they told me that I would be training……again! I now have two daughters in the mission J My newbie companion is from Ecuador and she is super cute! Her name is Hermana Tirado and we get along really well. We had the baptism of Hermana Martha on Saturday and it was such a good experienceJ She bore her testimony at the end and she told us that she felt that a huge weight had been lifted off of her shoulders and that she could feel peace and she knew that God loved her. What incredible words to hear as a missionary! It was a really good experience to say the least. Another cool thing that we saw this week was that a couple of days ago we contacted a lady in the street and invited her to church and then never saw her again but by some miracle she came to church yesterday! She has six kids under the age of 12 and her husband is in jail for drug use and they don’t have hardly any food or a decent house. It was such a miracle because she walked with her newborn baby and little kids all the way to the church and when she got there she met lots of wonderful members who stepped up to help her. They have brought food and clothes for her kids and she now has lots of new friends. We are hoping that she will be able to get baptized with her two oldest kids this month of July. The lord really works in mysterious ways! I hope that I can be a good example for my companion and that she will learn a lot. It is a lot of responsibility to train but I know that the Lord will help me through it. I love you all so much! Have a great week J

Love,

Hermana Allphin

Our baptism on Saturday. I love this family :)

Adventures :)

Hola Familia J

So last Monday we went to the waterfalls at Ahuashiyacu and it was such a fun experience. All sixteen of us got in a van a drove up the canyon for a while. The road was seriously so windy! We hiked and hiked and hiked some more through like pure jungle…. Seriously! Our legs were dying. We found this old swing that was made out of a garden hose and a piece of wood. The swing was huge and it swings over a huge ravine in the canyon. The elders decided that I was the first one that needed to try it, don’t ask me why. I got on the swing and went for it and honestly it was little bit scary but it was way cool at the same time! After I did it everyone else did it as well, including the senior missionary couple, haha it was way fun. We got up to the waterfalls and it was way cold but absolutely beautiful! We hiked up way behind the waterfalls and it was a way cool experience. So the senior missionaries here in Tarapoto live in a beautiful house.  Their names are Elder and Sister Mayne and they are like our grandparents. For our service project on Wednesday, Sister Mayne wanted us to come help her in the house. The whole zone went to her house and we helped her scrub cabinets, wash windows and do yard work while she was baking brownies for us and Elder Mayne was out doing a Barbeque. After the service we all at barbeque and brownies and had a nice American lunch. We love eating with them because they always give us American food. We are going to celebrate the fourth of July in their house J our investigator Martha is doing really well. She is getting baptized on Saturday and really I love her with all of my heart! In our lesson with her last night she told us of an experience. She said, “This morning I was making my breakfast and I didn’t have any ecco so I wanted to drink my coffee like usual. Then I remembered that the sisters had told me that I shouldn’t drink coffee and I really wanted to be obedient to the commandments so I didn’t drink the coffee, I drank something else instead.” Can you talk about a golden investigator? She really is so amazing and will be a faithful member for the rest of her life. She already has plans to go to the temple next year. I am so excited for her baptism on Saturday. We have transfers today and I hope with all my heart that I don’t get transferred so that I can be here for her baptism. We have been a little bit wrapped up in World Cup because the games are on in literally every house that we try and get into. No one wants to listen to us; they just want to watch soccer. In honor of World Cup the elders have felt the need to play soccer every P-day…. I won’t say my soccer skills are that good but I am getting better J The little white girl playing soccer with the Elders who have played professionally all their life… ya it is pretty funny J I hope you all have a wonderful week and that you are all doing well. HAPPY FATHER´S DAY DADDY!! I love you so much!

Love,

Hermana Allphin

this is my trainer Hermana Salinas. She finished her mission and went home yesterday. Gonna miss her alot!

Pictures!

The waterfalls at Ahuashiyacu :)

on the way to the waterfalls, it was kind of a long drive haha but my zone is so fun!

we had to do some cheerleading moves to climb up the tree to pick this thing, haha but it was so worth it :) Some jungle fruit... we dont really know what it is!

Look out over the canyon :)

classic jumping picture ;)

Me and Hna Burrell :)

The Rainbow

Hola familia!

Well this week was pretty normal what can I say? Haha but I do have a pretty funny story to tell you this week. So we were sitting in a lesson with one of our investigators and she was telling us that her little boy had been really sick. She told us that his whole body had swollen up and that she had had to take him to the “doctor.” We asked her what he was sick with and she said, “It was the rainbow.” Me and my companion looked at her for a second and then my companion asked her what that meant. She said, “If a rainbow falls on you, your skin gets really red and the chemicals of the rainbow make your whole body swell up, that is what happened to my little boy.” I have never had to try so hard not to laugh. Apparently a rainbow fell on her son and he got really sick and his whole body was swollen….definitely the first time I have heard of that. When you get out here in the virgin jungle the stories you hear are pretty funny. We worked really hard this week and we are hoping to have some good progress with some of the investigators that we have found. Today we are hiking to the waterfalls of Ahuashiyacu…. I should have some good photos for you next week. These waterfalls are really cool J Make sure no rainbows fall on you! I love you all, talk to you next week !

Love,

Hermana Allphin

Tarapoto :) I really love the mountains here.

Karate kid :)

The Book of Mormon :)

Hola Familia J

Wow we were able to see a lot of miracles this week! I have two way cool stories. So first of all we received a reference from the Elders of a single mom that lives in their area. She has an 18-year old daughter that is a member. We went to teach her the first time and she wasn’t really that interested but she told us that we could come back. We went back a couple of days later and we had an amazing lesson about the restoration and Joseph Smith. She expressed to us that she wants to get baptized but she wants to wait until next year when her daughter goes on a mission. We thought for a minute of how to resolve her problem and then we told her that if she gets baptized now, she will be able to enter the temple with her daughter in a year when she goes on a mission. Seriously, something in her heart changed. We all got on our knees and she gave the closing prayer. The spirit was really strong and in her prayer she said, “ Lord, I want to get baptized on the 21^st of June, I am going to do it.” Her daughter Karen was overwhelmingly happy because she thought her mom would never get baptized. We are so happy for this baptismal date that we have and we know that she will be a strong member of the church J Another cool experience that we had was that we got another reference from a lady in our ward. We went to the house of a woman named Lourdes to go and visit her. At first she was just like who are you? What do you want? But she finally decided to talk to us. At first she was like “ I am 100% catholic and that will never change.” We have taught her a couple times these last few weeks and she is changing. Yesterday in our lesson with her she told us that she has been reading the book of Mormon every day and then she said something that made us very happy she said, “When I read that book I feel different. I can feel something inside me and I feel that my faith is growing and that I am getting closer to God.” I LOVE THE BOOK OF MORMON J My companion and I were seriously so happy. No one can deny that power of that book. She has been praying and she has read all of the pamphlets and is studying the book of Mormon and the bible together with her daughter. She hasn’t accepted a baptismal date yet but we hope in the near future. The power of the gospel of Jesus Christ is real, and it changes lives and people. Well that is all I have for you this week family J I love you all so much! Talk to you soon!

Love,

Hermana Allphin