Be Like Aaron

Hola Familia!

 Well this week we didnt see any great miracles but the Lord did help me to understand a little bit better. Yesterday we were sitting in church and I was sitting at the piano, glumly looking out into the congregation realizing that once again we had zero investigators come to church, meaning that we cannot set a baptismal date with anyone, meaning that we are going to blank out for the fourth time. I was really sad and while they were passing the sacrament I had the thought come into my mind to pull out my Book of Mormon and start reading. I started reading from the part that I left off at which was the end of the story of Ammon. Ammon is commanded from the Lord to go to another part of the land to rescue his brothers. When he gets there he is saddened for the many afflictions that they had had to suffer.  There is a scripture that is talking about the missionary labors of Aaron and his companions that says, “And they preached the gospel to many… and there were few that believed.” This scripture really touched my heart because we are preaching the gospel to literally every person that we can find, but really there are few who believe. A little bit later in the story the scripture says something like, “ it was their luck to fall into the hands of the people with harder hearts” haha well at least that is what is says in Spanish! In Iquitos I felt like Ammon, I found a lot of people who were really prepared to get baptized but ever since I have come to Tarapoto, we have not found anyone.  After reading that scripture I circled it and wrote next to it the word, “Tarapoto” because really I feel that exact same way. However, Aaron and his brothers keep being diligent and a little later on the scriptures say, “and the Lord began to bless them” I know that in some moment the Lord will start to bless us. We are working really hard and doing the best we can but it was our luck to fall into the hands of the more hardened people. We are just going to keep being diligent and the Lord will bless our efforts. This week I will complete a year in the mission! I couldn’t even begin to tell you all the things that I have learned. However I do know that the Lord works in mysterious ways and the road to salvation is not easy but if we follow the Savior, he will always light the way. Things will be okay in the end. I am grateful for the hard experiences that we have that make us stronger, the Lord needs strong people to build his kingdom. I love you all so much! Have a great week!

Love,

Hermana Allphin

Hermana Simonson :)

Hola familia!

Well it was just another week here in Shilcayo. We had conference this week and President and Hermana Gomez came with the assistants. But when they came I got a very big surprise….. HNA SIMONSON CAME!!! We lived together for almost six months but when I got transferred to Tarapoto she stayed in Iquitos and then she got transferred to Pucallpa….. a city way far down far away from where I am at. She finishes her mission in 3 weeks and I thought I was not going to get a chance to see her again before she left but she got really sick in Pucallpa and is now in the offices. Long story short, she came to Tarapoto for zone conference!! President let her stay the night at my house because he knows that we are like best friends and it really was the boost that I needed. I was very happy J We found a family this week that was really cool. It is a young couple with two little kids and they were really interested in the message we shared with them. They have a little three-year old girl and she reminded me sooooo much of Scarlet!! I really hope that this family will see some good progress. We hiked up the waterfalls of Ahuashiyacu again today which was really fun! I fed a banana to a monkey J Living the jungle life! I love you family, have a great week J

Love,

Hermana Allphin

Guardian Angels

Hola Familia!

Well to be honest I don’t have a lot to tell you this week. We had a pretty rough week so I am not going to give a lot of details. We saw Satan win a lot of battles that our investigators were having and it was pretty sad but the only thing we can do is keep working. Things will get better. Cool experience for the week: We were walking down the street the other day and I almost got hit. Here in Peru the main mode of transport is the three-wheeled motokar. It is like a motorcycle with a carriage on the back and they are my favorite thing ever. Look it up they are really cool! Anyway, we were walking across the street and this Moto came FLYING around the corner and seriously it was inches away from hitting me dead on. It was so crazy because in one moment I tried to jump out of the way and miraculously the front tire of the moto swerved and it missed me by inches. We finished crossing the street and my companion looked at me terrified and said, “Hermana Allphin, how did that moto not hit you? It was coming straight for you! Wow that was a miracle!” And really it was a miracle. Talk about guardian angels right?? I was so happy that someone was watching over me that day. I love you all so much, have a wonder a week.

Love,

Hermana Allphin

Service Project!

They Came to Church!

Hola Familia!

Well, just another week here in Shilcayo. I don’t have any fantastic stories to tell you this week but we did have a really cool experience.  On Monday night we found a new family and we had absolutely one of the most frustrating lessons ever. A big problem we have here in the jungle is that the people really don’t understand very fast and when they do understand it is in a completely different way than we want them to. We had a lesson and the dad of this family just get telling us that all of the churches are true because we only pray to one God, (he used to be a pastor of a church) and no matter how much we tried to explain the restoration they just could not understand. Even though I was frustrated we scheduled another appointment to come back.  We returned to visit the family a few days later and we taught a lesson about the Sabbath day and why it is important to come to church and they told us that they might come. When people tell us they are going to come to church, it means absolutely nothing.  They usually never come.  However, Sunday morning we got to church and the family showed up. The dad, the mom and their older son all came.  We were so surprised! They came for all three hours and they liked the things that they learned. It was so good that they were able to attend fast and testimonies meeting because they heard a lot of people testify that this is the true and restored church of Jesus Christ. We are going to keep teaching this family and hopefully we can help them understand the restoration a little bit better J the spirit speaks all languages right? I love you all so much and I hope you have a great week. We had transfers and I am staying here in Shilcayo with my companion. Yay!! My companion is the best. Love you!

Hermana Allphin

Pretending to be Gargoyles :)

Castle!!