Gigantic Triantula

Hola Familia!

Wow I feel like I have so much to tell you but I dont know where to start. To begin, President and Sister Gomez came this week with the Assistants for Zone Conference and it was such an awesome experience. The trainings were so inspired and we were really edified and uplifted. President talked a lot about how we should baptize what the church needs so that we can fortify the Kingdom faster. They talked a lot about how we really need to look for the prepared people and not to baptize people that are not ready to be baptized so that they do not become less-active members. The next day, President and Sister Gomez came to our house for our weekly planning session and it was an interesting experience as we were planning for the Davila family, our family that got married last week. We were asking President about this family and about what we should do and he told us something very interesting. He said, “ It sounds like you want them to get baptized so much that you are overlooking the fact that maybe they need more time to prepare.” Reflectioning on that we knew that he was right. We decided to make the final decision based on what happened on Sunday. Sunday morning we passed by their house and they were all ready to go to chuch. We went to wait for them in the chapel and then only the husband showed up. We asked them what happened and he said that him and his wife got into a fight and that she wasnt going to come to church. Hence the decision was made, they are not going to get baptized on Saturday. We  went to their house last night and had a really good lesson and worked everything out and put the date that President had suggested that we put, the 13th of December. They accepted that baptismal date and are really excited. Sometimes we just have to be patient and accept the Lord´s timing. We also had a funny experience this week. We knelt down by our desks to start planning and my companion just started screaming. I looked down and there was this GIGANTIC triantula on the ground!! Seriously it was huge. We didnt know what to do so I got the broom and my companion got the trash can and I started scaring her way and she dropped the trash can on it. We were scared that the spider was going to move the trash can because it was so big so we put a huge spanish Bible on it J The next morning we called like all of our leaders and no one wanted to kill the spider but finally the Zone Leaders came because they had to drop off some stuff. Elder Brown walked in armed with the broom and he kicked over the trash can and speared the spider….. while my other zone leader was in the corner with us screaming J It was soooo funny! We lived and everything was fine. Well that is it for this week. Love you all, I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving. You have much to be grateful for, trust me! I love you all!

Love,

Hermana Allphin

District Picture 

Isis :) My pensionista´s little girl. I love her!!

Giant Triantula in my house!! 

Wedding Madness!

Hola Familia

Bueno, de verdad no quiero escribir en inglés pero voy a intentar ya? This week was full of crazy adventures like always. To start off, it rained all week!! Literally it started raining on Tuesday and didnt stop until Saturday. We were out trudging in the extremely muddy streets everysingle day and let me tell you, my shoes and socks are all covered in thick, red mud….. gotta love the rain forest! I guess it was a nice change from the tremendous heat. So this week we worked soooo hard so that this wedding would turn out alright and by some miracle it did. We have two awesome Zone Leaders who were able to get all the paperwork done and we did all that we could so that everything would go smoothly and really, their wedding was such a success! Xiomara is 18 and Oliver is 21 and they got a lot of crap about getting married because here in the Jungle people dont get married, they just live together their whole lives. Oliver was so nervous the day of the wedding but when Xiomara walked in she looked absolutely stunning and it was a wonderful experience. We had something called a Massive Wedding which means that more than one couple got married. In total, there were five couples that got married at the same time. All the couples were up front with the companionships of stressed out missionaries in the back working relentlessly to make everything perfect. All of us were very satisfied though J They cut the cake at the end and there was a table full of food. Cultural note: Peruvians love their food! They swarmed to the table like vultures and the food was gone in ten seconds. One Elder almost lost his arm just trying to grab for a sandwich. It was pretty funny!  I am so priviledged to serve with the Elders and Sister who I am serving with. They all work so hard and it was so awesome to see the joy on their faces as their investigators were married. I think we all gave a mutual sigh of relief at the end. It was a beautiful experience and you could tell that the families were all very happy. Some of the couple that were married were older and had multiple children. Our couple only has one little boy and his name is Angelo…. And he is adorable. Now they are a family J They came to church yesterday finally and we are hoping for their baptism on the 29th of November. We will see what happens. Thank you for all of your prayers. I love you all!

Love,

Hermana Allphin

Beautiful Bride :)

Wedding Fun :)

The Wedding was a Success!

The Lord is Always Right

Hola Familia!

Bueno, this week was a little bit hard I am not going to lie. We seemed to be faced with every problem in the book.We did get to travel up to a little village about and hour away called Campo Verde. We went as a zone to support the Elders up there and it was so successful and fun. My zone really is my family and Campo Verde is absolutely stunning. Pure, untouched jungle. We have been working soooo hard with this family that is going to get married this week. We are having problems with their papers and with some other details and it has been really frustrating but hopefully the Lord and the Zone Leaders can pull a miracle out and they might be able to get married on Saturday. The hardest part was that yesterday, they came to church late and so their attendance didnt count. Without that attendance they cannot get baptized. We put our whole hearts and faith into this family and then to just watch them fall so hard like that really broke our hearts. It hurt, it really hurt. The worst was that we had prayed about this family a couple weeks ago and had asked the Lord if they should get married and baptized this month and we got an answer, the sad thing is that we didnt listen to the answer the Lord gave us and we moved on anyway with the plans and we are now suffering the consequences of not listening to the Lord. I guess I can empathize a little bit more with Joseph Smith when he didnt listen to the answer that he got from the lord. It is hard, but I know that the Lord is forgiving and he will lead us to someone else. I guess it was just hard for me to understand why the Lord would not want this family to get baptized but really I just need to remember that the Lord´s ways are not my ways and his timing is different than mine. I know everything will be fine, Satan wins sometimes and everyone has their agency but the work of the Lord will go on no matter what. That is the great hope of missionary work. I love you all, have a great week!

Love,

Hermana Allphin

Beautiful :)

Beautiful Jungle :)

Oliver and Xiomara--- Leadership Conference

Hola Familia!!

Well this week was pretty crazy but very fun. Last Tuesday we went to visit the family of Oliver and Xiomara. We have been working with this family for the last two months and have had so many obstacles with them but have endured. We decided as a companionship that if they did not accept a marriage and baptism date that night then we were going to have to leave them for a little while because we could lose anymore time. We went to visit them and asked about their prayers and everything and Oliver looked at us and said, “ I have read the chapter you left me in the Book of Mormon, and I know that things are hard right now for us but more than anything, the Lord wants us to live the commandments. We are going to get married on the 15th.” Me and my companion almost died of happiness. Now we have been planning their wedding this whole week and of course we are having sooooo many problems with their marriage papers but we will have faith that the Lord will work everything out. This family really is so poor. They live in a one roomed little box and have hardly any food. They were not going to get married because they did not see a way that they could work it out financially and it was such a beautiful experience to see them put their trust in God and move forward, despite the problems. They will be getting baptized on the 29th of November and we are so excited to help them this month. We also flew to Iquitos this week for Leadership Conference and it was so fun! I loved being with all of my friends that I have literally served my whole mission with. These Elders and Sisters have changed my life. We had a really inspiring conference and we flew back on Halloween. We were in the airport forever because the flight got delayed but we had a good time talking with the other leaders serving here in Pucallpa. Pucallpa is the farthest city away from Iquitos so it was kind of a long flight. Peruvian flights are really scary because we fly over pure jungle. I have never felt more turbulance in my whole life. The plane really just shakes and bounces the whole flight and then you look out the window and just see the Amazon river! I never want to crash in the middle of the jungle!! I hope that never happens. Well family I hope you have a great week and have fun counting your blessings. If you would like to lend a prayer our way that this wedding and baptism goes through, it would be much appreciated. We are working really hard. Love you all!

Love,

Hermana Allphin

Leadership Conference :)

Baptism of Paola and Paul

Hola Familia!

Well I dont have a lot of time so this one is going to be kind of short. This week was a Little bit of long one but we survived it. Just so you all know, I did not get transferred and neither did my companion! We were super excited about that. We are still the Sister Leaders and with this responsibility, every time a sister is sick we have to accompany them to the clinic. This week we had a sister that was having a lot of health problems and so we were at the doctor with her a lot and we didnt have tons of time to work in our area but everything will be okay. We had a baptism on Saturday of a really cool family. Hermana Paola and her 12-year-old son Paul. She really has been a golden investigator and she was so excited for her baptism. The Ward has really helped us bring them in and Paul is really excited to be in the Young mens program and recieve the priesthood! She always tells us how good she feels and how she knows she has repented. They have a bright future ahead of them. We are working with the Dàvila family still so that they can get married and baptized in November. They really have desires to do it but they are still really hesitant to accpet a set date. If you wouldnt mind keeping them in your prayers that would be awesome!! I hope you all have a wonderful Halloween! I will be flying to Iquitos this week for the Leadership Conference, I am super excited to see all of my friends again that are serving in different areas of the jungle….. it is going to be awesome J I love you all, have a wonderful week. HAPPY HALLOWEEN J

Love,

Hermana Allphin

Paola and Paul Baptism!

9 Investigators!!

Hola Familia!!

Well this week was an interesting one! We have been hard at work in our area and we are seeing some really good success. We had 9 investigators come to church yesterday!! Whoo! That is a record. We were seriously soo excited. One of the families that came to church is a single mother and her son that are going to get baptized on Saturday! I am way excited for their baptism because honestly they are so prepared. The mom is Paola and her 12-year old son is named Paul. She also has a 3-year old little girl named Annabel. She is the funniest little lady and she is so head strong and even though her whole family is telling her that she should not get baptized she just brushes it off her shoulder and tells us, “Hermanas, I am so excited for my baptism!” We really love her and her son Paul is really enjoying being in the young mens. Their baptism is going to be great. The other family that came is a young couple who want to get married this month of November. They have a little baby. Last week their little boy got really sick and they couldn’t take him to the hospital because they didn’t have any money. When we walked into their little one room house, the first thing I thought was, “that baby is dying.” He was throwing up and had a really high fever. Me and my companion did not know what to do so we called the Bishop and he came and gave him a blessing and the fever instantly dropped and he is doing much better. We are really excited for them to get baptized and married this month. We also had a mother come with her two kids and we passed by to visit them in the night and her husband happened to be there. As we shared the message of the Restoration the father of this family told us that he had been looking for a way to change his life and that he would do everything possible to come to church with his family next Sunday. Score!!! We have some good things happening in our area and we can really see the hand of the Lord in all things. He is really blessing us. I really hope I don’t get transferred today!!!! I guess we will see what happens but I love being here in Ucayali! I love you all, talk to you next weekJ

Love,

Hermana Allphin

Conference:)

Hola Familia!

Well this week was pretty awesome just because of the fact that we got to watch General Conference!! Let me just say that this conference was seriously sooooo inspiring! I was uplifted by every single talk. I cannot wait to get the Liahona so that I can read them all again.  I especially loved Jeffrey R. Holland´s talk about poverty. It really touched my heart. Everything he said is so completely true. You cant understand poverty until you have lived in it. I cant say that I have ever been impoverished but I see the poverty every single day, everywhere I go. There is no escaping it, it absolutely consumes this land. It is a very sad thing to see let me tell you. People live in little river towns in little shack houses. They barely have enough money to buy their rice everyday. The families are destroyed and there are many single mothers with many small children. The children are let free to roam around the dirty streets withougt shoes or a shirt, absolutely covered in dirt. There are many families who have lost children due to disease simply because there are not resoureces here to take care of them. To be honest, I am completely used to seeing these things every day because I have been here for over a year but that talk really made me open my eyes again and see how blessed I really have been in my life. When he spoke of how much the Savior loves the poor and needy it really reiterated in my head how much I need to love them. I am serving some of the poorest of the poor and I know that Jesus would seek them out first because he really does love them. I need to remember that better. We had 6 of our investigators come to conference yesterday and we were really excited! Two of them are getting baptized on the 25th of October and we are working with the other 4 for November. We are being really blessed in our area and I know that the Lord is hastening his work. Are we hastening ourselves to keep up with it? If we are not, we need to. The Lord needs everyone he has got. Family, I challenge you to help the missionaries! We need all of the help that we can get. I love you all sooo much. I hope you have a wonderful week!

Love ,

Hermana Allphin