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

Crazy Transfers!

Okay I really dont have a lot of time to write today but I am going to try and explain this crazy week. So we had transfers on Monday and my companion, Hna Kirk, got transfered to Iquitos. I am really sad because we had a lot of fun together but its whatever. She got on a plane early the next morning and I was left to work with a member all day in my area because my new companion was still in Iquitos. Wednesday morning I went to the airport and traveled with the Zone Leaders to Iquitos for the leadership conference that was this week.... I love traveling but the flights here are really not fun. Lots of turbulence over the jungle. When I got to Iquitos and my companion picked me up there and we went to the leadership conference together the next day. I love leadership conference, it really is so fun and we recieve lots of inspiration. Plus I love seeing all of my friends that I never see because they are serving in other parts of the jungle. Thursday was the conference and Friday we flew back to Pucallpa with the zone leaders of the two zones as well as the assistants. Saturday was stake conference and Elder Waddell from the seventy came and it was so amazing everything he shared. Sunday, the Davila family came to church!!! Yay!! They are going to get baptized on Saturday and I am sooooo excited. However Sunday my new companion hna Linford was really sick and we went to the christmas devotional in the stake center. She stood up to leave because she really wasnt feeling good and she totally passed out! I seriously didnt know what to do. I was trying to get my district leaders attention but in like 10 seconds we were surrounded my like ten elders just looking at me and asking me what to do..... stressful. Good thing that president and hna Gomez also flew into Pucallpa for the stake conference so we were able to go the clinic with them at like 10 o clock last night! Needless to say I am very tired and glad the week is over. My companion´s name is Hna Linford and she is also from Utah. She is in my same group so we will be going home together. I love you all so much and hope you have a wonderful week. Talk to you soon!

Love,

Hermana Allphin

Miracle Baptism :)

Hola Familia!

Okay this week was so cool. I am so excited to tell you about the experience we had this week.  So as of last Sunday night we knew that due to some reasons, we were not going to be able to baptize anyone in the month of November…. However the Lord had a different plan. Monday night we went to the house of our recent converts and Francis´s brother was there.  His brother´s  name is Alfredo and we actually met him at the beginning of October. When we first met him he said he wasnt really interested in getting baptized but we invited him to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it and he said he would. A couple days later he traveled up the river to work and we thought we would never see him again. He showed up again and was living with our converts at the beginning of November and started coming to church but he told us that he was going to travel again and so we didnt teach him or anything. Hahaha Monday night when we went to visit the family he was there and said, “ Hermanas, I have read to page 312 in the Book of Mormon and prayed, I want to get baptized.” We were literally shocked into silence. He continued to tell us that he was going to travel again for a couple of weeks this Monday and wanted to get baptized before he left.  Haha he told us, “ Hermanas, I want to get baptized on Saturday,  can I?” We made all of the arrangements and taught him what he needed to know and set up his interviews and everything else and he got baptized Saturday night J It was seriously the craziest miracle ever!! In his testimony after he got baptized he said, “I feel so happy and relieved to have gotten baptized and I just want to thank the Sisters for helping come to know the Book of Mormon.” It just warmed my heart so much to hear that. I hope that he finishes while he is traveling. The best part is that when they get back from the river his 17-year-old son Paolo, who was going to get baptized in October, wants to get baptized J  Yay, they will both be members. There were many things to give thanks for this week. I love you all and I am so grateful for all of your prayers. Transfers are today and it will be interesting to see what happens… I really hope I stay here. If I do stay, we are flying to Iquitos this week for leadership conference J Well,  I love you all, have a great week!

Love,

Hermana Allphin

Miracle Baptism :)

Alfredo and Elder Milne

coming out of the water :) 

Saying goodbye to some of the Elders going home