Lima - Post 13

August 18, 2014

Thanks for all the people that wrote me this week.  It was such a relief to get on my email account and see so many e-mails :)  Sorry the letter is so late and short.  Today is a holiday in Argentina and the internet places are closed so we are at the church building writing emails on the church computer. 

As for this week, I honestly don't remember much.  The Muga family is doing AWESOME!  Brother Muga received the priesthood Sunday.  They are seriously the best.  We are basically part of the family.  We tease and joke around a lot.  My companion and I taught Relief Society Sunday but it was just us, Franca Muga and a less-active member that came for the 2nd time (wootwoot!).  We talked about raising children in the light and truth.  I wore a new blouse Carla Vigñes (one of the Young Women) gave me and after the lesson, Hermana Duran told me she imagined me as a marriage and family counselor, knowing that's what I wanted to be. 

We did divisions this week with the Sister Training Leader's.  It was cool because one of them was Hermana Crawley.  We did divisions together about 6 months ago. When we talked about our goals, she pulled out the goals I made 6 months ago and we were able to see how much I've changed.  I think really I have changed the most here in Lima.  It has truly been my refiner's fire.  I love this place so much.  I don't want to leave but we have transfers next week and I feel like I have done what I came here to do, find the Familia Muga.  There are other people in other places waiting for me. 

Well I don't really know what else to say or have much time, but I am happy and healthy and enjoying the work so much.  I love you all!

Hermana Allison Scarlett

PS - So my companion speaks english super well but she was trying to say the 14th of August but it came out as the 4 teeth of August.  I was super confused but then I figured it out :)

Lima - Post 12

August 11, 2014

This week has been SO BUSY!  We are teaching people like crazy!  For those missionaries out, there we had 13 lessons with members.  We were a little sad about that, but then we counted that we had 31 Other Lessons! If we had had a member in ever lesson we would have had 44 Lessons with member!  FUA!  we are finding and teaching so many people but we are really focusing on those who will progress and be baptized.  Like the MUGA FAMILY! 

Ohmylanta the Muga family are seriously the best!  I feel like they are MY FAMILY!  Their baptism was so special and so great.  I feel like I have learned more from them than they have learned from us.  While teaching them we have seen how applying the gospel in the family makes all the difference.  They are so much happier and things are just better in their home.  They are so excited to go to the temple and be sealed for eternity!  I am going to do all I can so that next August and I can be there for their sealing.  They are seriously THE BEST! 

I love being here in Lima. We are seriously seeing miracles.  One of those miracles is Juan Jose (his nickname is Pipi).  We found Juan Jose after about 6 referrals.  His brother lives next to him and he told us to go and visit him, so we did.  We talked to him and it turns out his girlfriend in Zarate is a member and he went went with her to church a couple times some years ago.  We chatted and invited him to go to church and he said yeah.  We also invited him to be baptized on the 30th and he said yeah.  He said yeah to pretty much everything.  We didn't really think anything about it because the people who say yeah to everything don´t really do what they say they will.  But we passed by sunday morning and expected him to be asleep, but he was up and ready to go. WHA?!? We were shocked. SO we said see you there at 9:30 then went by to see if any of our other investigators were up, and they weren't.  We went to the church and right when we got there Juan did too.  And it turns out that he knows some of the members!  He enjoyed the classes and afterwards, he said "And the baptism, I accept.  When will it be?"  That Sunday was when the Muga Family were confirmed and when we talked to  Juan Jose he said he felt something when they were confirmed and he wanted that too.  AHHHH! We were so excited!  Things are doing great here in Lima.  Transfers are in 2 weeks and I REALLY hope that I get to stay here.

AS for some funny moments, One night we ran into a recent convert in the street and he told us he got a new phone, so we saved the number in our phone and we called him so he would have our number.  SO I dailed his new number and his phone rings.... his ringtone was Britney Spear´s "Oops, I did it again."  BAHAHAHA! It took all my strength not to bust out into laughter in that moment!  And He isn´t a super young guy either.  That song has been stuck in my head ever since...

Sunday afternoon we went by the house of a less active to see if we could visit her.  Her cat was walking around outside so I picked it up, but it didn´t want to be picked up.  So it was struggling to get out of my arms and I was trying to make it be calm.  When finally I just let it jump out of my arms thinking that it would land on it´s feet.  People say that cats ALWAYS land on their feet, but I am here to tell you that they DO NOT!  The dumb thing landed on it´s head! Every time I think about that moment I just burst into laughter!  I think it is one of the funniest things i have EVER SEEN!

SO yeah things are great and I´m am happy and healthy once again :)  The Lord is seriously the best and He loves us.  He wants us to be happy and succesful in our efforts.  I have seen that so many times these past 4 weeks and I am so grateful to be here doing His will.  I LOVE MY CALLING! 

Hermana Allison Scarlett

Lima - Post 11

August 4, 2014

ZOMBIE CATS!!!!

Mwahaha! Now I have your attention :)  Read my whole e-mail and you will learn why :p

Well this week was a miracle in and of itself. 

Monday was normal, I started to get a headache that afternoon but I was pretty fine.  

Tuesday was a good day. We went and did some service with the Muga family that we are teaching. Had a lot of lessons and talked to a lot of friendly people.  The only down was feeling too hot/sick that morning but I asked for a blessing from the elders and went to work anyways.  By the end of the day I felt dead.  We had a member working with us and my companion could see that I felt crappy but we kept going.  Near the end of the day she was talking to everyone and I offered a simple testimony when I could.  We ended up heading back to the house a little early, planned quickly, I took some meds and went to bed early.

Wednesday morning I woke up and felt absolutely HORRIBLE!  My whole body ached, had a low-grade fever, and had the worst throat pain ever.  My companion took one look at me and just told me to stay in bed.  I just slept on and off, but around 1 in the afternoon I felt better, got the strength to shower, and was getting ready to head out and work, but my companion forbade it.  Told me that I needed to rest and get my strength back before we headed out.   So I sat on my bed and tried to knit, when all of the sudden I just felt all of the strength leave my arms and felt a fever coming on.  I quickly changed, laid down, checked my temperature, and had a fever of 101.4.  I pretty much just crashed in 5 minutes.  And I still had this terrible throat pain.  My companion thought it was the flu but for the throat pain I was pretty sure it was something else, strep.  So I slept the rest of the day and night.

Thursday I woke up feeling better.  DIdn´t have the fever anymore but felt super weak and tired.  Stayed in bed and rested, but my throat hurt even more. I could barely talk.  So I had her look at it and sure enough I had white spots on the back of my throat.  NOOOOO!  We called the mission nurse, told her all, and sure enough I had strep throat.  She told us what medicines to buy, we ran out and got them. We came back and I was on bed rest, but i couldn't sleep because i kept coughing.  We cooked up some soup and I just rested, trying not to talk. I read the 70 page history of Grandpa Dawson that day.  It´s really awesome :)  I had also grabbed my sticky note pad with cats on it and my liquid white out.  I started to put the white out on their eyes and just laughed.  I showed it to my companion and said "Look, Zombie Cats!" She got a little freaked out at first but then we laughed about it.  (It made me think of the George family and their zombie antics) But then later I felt all the strength leave my body AGAIN and yet again I was in bed with a fever.  Ugh I was so sick of being sick!  I just wanted to leave the house and help people. I decided I was going to ask the elders for another blessing, I was going to get better that night, and go out to work tomorrow.  So I did.  Got another blessing, and rested up.

Friday I woke up, felt a little crappy, so rested for an hour and a half, got up, got dressed, started cleaning up my mess from being sick for 2 days, ate lunch, planned a bit, and headed out to work.  We were listening to Hillary Weeks and a song came on.  The words said "It´s a good day to have a good day." So we left excited to work.

Saturday we planned what we weren't able to plan Friday then went out to work.  We talked to a lot of people.

Sunday The Muga Family came to church but left after the 1st hour because their son turned 8 (WOOHOO!) and they had family over to visit.  After church we went by their home and met some of their family.  Turns out some of her nieces and nephews are less active members.  We really clicked with one of her sisters and we are going to try to visit and teach her too.  We had a member accompany us and met a lot of people and had a lot of lessons.  We met a guy named Matias. We shared with him but he didn't really say much.  So we asked him "Do you believe that God has more in store for you?"  He thought about it and said "yeah, yeah I do." So we invited him to be baptized and he said yes.  He is preparing to be baptized to 30th of August.  We left him the pamphlet about the restoration and are going to go by tomorrow. 

On thing I am really learning here in the mision is that the Lord fulfills his promises if we do all we can on our part.  If we work and work our hardest, and we still come up Short, the Lord makes up the rest.  It´s something absolutely amazing that I have seen time and time again in my mision.  I love this Gospel so much and I love being able to share it and help people make changes in their lives and find the truth.  I love seeing miracles every day and being an instrument in the hands in the Lord.  I Love you all too :)

Hermana Allison Scarlett

Lima - Post 10

July 28, 2014

"Yea, and this is my glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring some soul to repentance, and this is my joy" Alma 29:9

I couldn't quite decide what to title this e-mail.  I was debating on "Stand ye in Holy Places"  "There can be miracles if you believe" and many others.  But overall that scripture expresses how I truly feel right now.

It has been quite a Looooooooong and crazy week!  We have been finding a lot of people but they either drop us or fall through or they don't keep their commitments.  But the Muga family continues on strong.  They are seriously the family that every missionary wants to find on their mission.  They have the goal and vision of being an eternal family.  One night we were talking to them about the Holy Spirit and I shared how I felt so strongly that we needed to come back after the first night we passed by. Time after time we couldn't find them but finally we did. After talking to him I felt that this was their time and that we had been guided by the Spirit to them. Hermano Muga said that one day he was talking to a co-worker about his life and his co-worker told him that God had great things waiting for him.  That was the same day we came by and told him about eternal families and he was like "Alright, this is it! This is what God wants for us!"  I just about burst into tears when he told us that.  I felt so humbled to be here and to be an instrument in the Lord´s hands to be able to bring the gospel to those who have been prepared to hear it.  That is why I am here. And in that I have joy - joy that I can´t hold inside and makes me want to share it with EVERYONE!  This gospel is seriously the greatest thing ever!  It changes lives and helps us overcome the difficulties of thie life.  Even when things are hard we can continue with confidence that the Savior is at our side guiding us and helpind us through every moment. 

Some other cool miracles that heppened this week:

-I can say the "rr" (trill my r´s) after 10 months of practice! (I was riding around on my bike saying "arriba" over and over again)

-I'm learning how to knit! (Yeah stop laughing. it´s teaching me patience)

-My companion loves music just as much as i do! (We are now the biggest fan of Micheal McLean´s "The Garden")

This week I found a song called "Come see the light of hope" with some of the music a member in Congreso gave me.  It´s like my favorite song right now.  It talks about the coming of Christ to the Americas (Book of Mormon 3 Nephi Chapter 11).  It has really made me think about when Christ will come again.  What will it be like?  As I thought about it I was filled with this immense joy and happiness.  I started talking to my companion about it and said "I can´t wait for Christ to come again. I´m not exactly sure what will happen or what it will be like but I know that I will be the happiest I have ever been." I can´t wait to meet my Savior.  I can´t wait to look into his eyes and feel the love he has for me.  Sometimes I wish the second coming would come tomorrow just so I could give him a big hug.  That is what I want more than anything.  To see him and hear him say "well done thou good and faithful servant"  And I want others to feel the same way in that day.  And to be able to do that they need to find the truth and follow it and be true to it!

I found a quote that i really love and want to share it. It´s by Howard W. Hunter, a former President of the Church.  "This question may appear as a play on words of the Lord when he said this is the true and living church.  When I ask ´Am I a true and living member?´ my question is, Am I deeply and fully dedicated to keeping the covenants I have made with the Lord?  Am I totally commited to living the gospel and being a doer of the word and not a hearer only? Do I live my religion? Will I remain true?  Do I stand firm against Satan´s temptations? He is seeking to cause us to lose our way in a storm of derision and a tide of sophistry.  We can have victory, however, by respponding to our inner vioce calling ´Stand firm!´"

I invite each of you to ponder on this and ask yourself, "Am I a true and living member?"  Think about something you can do better, repent, and do it! I promise you as you do it you will feel closer to your Heavenly Father and your Savior.  You will have a new and stronger love fro the gospel, and will feel so joyful that you will want to share it with the whole world!

Les quiero mucho!

Hermana Allison Scarlett