Mem

¡Feliz año nuevo!

2011-12-30T10:35:00.000-07:00

Hey Y'all
I hope you had a very merry christmas and that new year will be great. I hope everyone has put a few goals and a few other plans to achieve your goals for this year.
My week has been interesting as all weeks are for me. We are preparing for 10 new missionaries the first part of this change and in the course of the change we are preparing for another 5 the 3rd week and another 9 the 6th week and then the next group will be another 9 the first week of next change. Strange, but that is what we are preparing for. So changes are next week, 2 hnas go home from belice so we'll be sending 2 hnas, and we also will be sending at least 3 elders because 3 elders go home from belice this change as well. I think it will be more than 3, but we'll see next monday. Lets see tuesday we worked a mas o menos normal day, a little rough, all our citas fell, all of our plans fell, and contacting didn't pan out with anything. pero asi es de vez en cuando. Wed we had meetings and then we worked more (yeay) Thurs I went to San Salvador to be with one of the nurses from the other mission to learn more about the hospitals that they use there in San Salvador. We were there for all of the morning, and came back to santa ana about 3 and we went to the office so I could look at the ingrown toenail of an Elder who was there for training. We got back to the area about 530 and of course we worked some more. I got a calendar for the next change so I can know when things are and where and not put apointments when there are other things.
Well, thats about it for my week, love y'all,
Hna Allen

Feliz Navidad!

2011-12-23T15:21:00.000-07:00

Hola familia!
Feliz navidad y prospero año nuevo.
This week has flown by, we've been working in trio in both my area and the area of Hna Montalvan. The hard part is my investigators aren't in the house much before 5 and Hna Montalvan's aren't either. We managed to do divisions a few times so we could both teach our investigators, but it isn't the same as working in your area all day. We have found some very positive investigators this week. It has been a great time to contact because people are in the house, they are also a little more stressed so they are more willing to accept help. Last night when we got back from doing divisions all day we didn't have electricity, so we planned, and ate by candle light, and we went to bed early. This morning we cleaned the house, and while we were cleaning Elder Molina(one of the assistants) called me to tell me that today Hna Martinez(the Hna who had dengue) was going to go to Juayua to be with Hna Ellis, where my companion Hna Salazar was, and Hna Salazar was coming back and Hna de Leon was coming back and 2 sisters were coming from belice, and one was going to where Hna de Leon was and the other to a different area. So we got ready for the day, and headed to Rio Zarco to pack Hna Martinez' bags and then Elder Beaton(other assistant) and one of the Zone leaders in Juayua took us(the tree of us) to Juayua to take Hna Martinez and bring back Hna Salazar. Now we are in the office waiting for The Hnas from belice so Hna Montalvan can go and bring back her comp to her area. Whew what a day, but it has been fun.
This week I have been studying in the Liahona from General conference, I loved the talk by Elder Uchtdorf about that we are so small and insignificant in comparison to all the creations of the universe, but that we are so important to our Heavenly Father. I also have been reading in Alma, I started into the war chapters, but it is a liitle slow, because I keep having to pause to look up words. The words are very different than what we use talking everyday.
Love ya
Hna Allen

¡Feliz Navidad!

2011-12-15T10:26:00.000-07:00

Feliz Navidad de Santa Ana!
THis week has been packed with crazyness and adventure. Last thurs one of the Hna started having a headache and fever, we treated as we would a normal flu, and she rested and slept and drank water and gatorade and took tylenol until sunday when she suddenly got a bloody nose, poor thing, we became concerned that it could progress to be hemoragic dengue, and we took her to the hospital where they ran tests and she was diagnosed with dengue clasico, so she has been in the hospital since sunday and all day yesterday and last night I was with her there in the hospital so her comp could go get clean clothes and a few other things that they need, and also be freed from the square of a hospital room for a while. Today her platelets started to increase finally and she'll leave the hospital to come and stay with me for a few more days. In addition to her a few other sick elders and sisters has made this a very complicated week. Sunday night another compañerismo came to stay in my house and we wound up having to do a lot of arranging and yesterday one of the Hnas and My comp hna Salazar went to Juayua to the area, and the sick one stayed in the house with Hna Montalvan and Hna Villatoro(comp of the one who has dengue) went and did all the things she had to do with hna De Leon(comp of hna Montalvan) and the mess continues today. We'll see what happens with that, also another elder went to San Salvador for toe surgery(ingrown toenail) and another for follow up after his scope, and whew what a week for the nurse and all who have the (mis)fortune to live with her.
But Tuesday we had capacitacion again, and I learned a lot, and then I stayed in the house with the sick hna and read and read and read, and then yesterday in the hospital again I read and read and read and read. I think if this continues I'll finish Alma before the end of the week. I have enjoyed the time to read, but it is hard to be inside all day when you know there is so much to do outside.
Tomorrow is our multizona navideña and I will be singing :D and we'll play games and it will be great. I hope that all goes well and in the end I'll be able to go(AKA that I don't have to stay here in modelo with the sick ones)
I have loved reading the stories about themissionaries in Alma and (after 3 days of the fundamentals) being able to see, yes this is this fundamental, this is how you teach tal principio, what inspired questions, teaching lesson 2 because that is what they need, etc.
I've been learning a lot and I have been enjoying the holidays here. It is deffinately different, just like everything else. I thought at first that things being so different would make me homesick, but things are so different that they don't even remind me of home, so at times I find it difficult to believe that it is december(my mind goes DECEMBER? WHERE IS THE SNOW?) that it is christmas time(I am in short sleeves and quite comfortable) etc. I have been enjoying the more traditional foods that they make for christmas, which againare nothing like home.
My time is up love y'all tons
Hna Allen

Salú

2011-12-09T10:44:00.000-07:00

Hey Y'all,
Greetings from El Salvador, This week has flown by, we almost haven't worked with all the meetings we've had this week. Monday of course I was in the office, Then we came back, and made baliaras with a less active family( the tortillas were excellent and I made them thank you) tuesday we had fundamentals of preach my gospel which is training to help us be better teachers, to work more effectively, and to see where we need to be better. I love the capacitaciones, because I learn so much, and we practice too so you put in practice how to teach people. In the begining(my first few) I felt a little weird, but now I love them because I always learn so much from the other missionaries, they might use different scriptures to address a problem, or they might teach a principle with a different object lesson, or just the way they teach that helps me learn so much, not to mention then I get to practice applying what we are learning and I become a better missionary for it. After Fundamentals we came back to the area, and made baliaras again, with a different family from the ward, we were supposed to have FHE and recieve references, butthe last moment the references couldn't make it, so we made baliaras with the family and taught the family about how they can prepare other people to hear the gospel. Wednesday we had our district and zone meetings. President changed the schedule a little so now we'll have training with our zone and district every week in addition to the normal meetings and anouncements. So we finished our meetings went back to the house, ate made the dough for baliaras (again) and went to work. Then in the night we had another FHE with a less active family and had baliaras again. Thursday we had Fundamentos de predicad mi evangelio again, and when we came back to the area, we didn't eat or make baliaras, we just taught investigators and less active families that we are working with. And now it is friday. We came to the Stake center early to practice because next friday we have a multizona navideña and all of the zones are going to sing a hymn, also on sunday after that is the fireside for the stake, and the missionaries are singing for that as well. I have been asigned to sing soprano because no one else can reach the notes (and sound marginally pretty) for Joy to the World.
Next friday, because it will be the multizona navideña we'll probably write on thursday.
I hope you got the package that I sent with Hna Woods, and I hope as well that it makes sense.
I got the christmas package. Thankyou for the christmas music. I guessed that I shouldn't open the other things because they are wrapped in christmas paper. If I guessed wrong please correct me. My companions are very very curious to see what is inside these packages. They are the only presents under our little tree. and I think that adds the the curiosity. I think one of them is a rewrapper(opens the presents to see what is inside and then rewraps them to put them under the tree) if I had my guess with her 'just open them what is inside?'
This week in one of the capacitactiones president showed us a video on LDS.org of the dedication of the Temple in El Salvador. It is a great glimps of the culture and way of life of those who live in the city. Not so much for those del campo.
Hey mom, Do you work the 24th or the 25th? When would be the time/day that I could find the most people in the house Christmas day is sunday I get out of church at 12, andI could call after that, or I can call in the night on the 24th after 830 here.
My time is about up but Just real fast This week I have learned about how to work better with the members. President put the example that now is the time of the harvest, and we as missionaries if we aren't working with the members we are just cutting by hand, which isn't as effective, he said the members are like combines, and sometimes we work with them but not in the way that is most effective, like we are feeding the grain to the machine to thresh, but we aren't using the combine to cut. Then he said, if we work more effectively with the members we can triple our results. He said we need to help them, teach them, train them like we've been trained and help them work with us. When we do this it is like now we let the combine do its job to cut the grain. The harvest is mucho mucho mas eficaz. Family, work with the missionaries.
Here is a game we've been playing with our members to help them see that they have friends and family that the lord has prepared for the gospel. Make a list of names of people you know.
Members, non members family friends etc the more names on the list the better and the one who has the most names on their list wins. (for us when we ask for the list we just write the names down ourselves becaus many people can't read or write) Then we sing a hymn, pray, read some scriptures about missionary work, and then invite the head of the family to pray to know which of the people who's names are written on this list to kneel and pray to know who the lord has prepared to hear the gospel. We say the prayer, and they mark the names then we put a plan for how we will invite them to hear the message(invite them to FHE one night Dinner with the missionaries etc) and practice with the member what they will say, how they will invite these friends, and help them feel more confident to invite their friends to their house, to learn about the gospel.
We're working for a white christmas ;D
Love ya
Hna Allen

Ya estamos en Deciembre

2011-12-02T09:25:00.000-07:00

Greetings from El Salvador
This week has passed by rather quickly. Saturday we worked like normal. Sunday church, and bastante comida as usual. Monday in the office, Tuesday we worked like normal, Wednesday district meeting and worked like normal, wednesday in the afternoon I started feeling not so good, and went to bed early, even though enfermos called me up until 10:30, so I didn't get to sleep, I just got to lay down. Thursday I woke up in the middle of the night sick. With fever, my body hurt, etc. Don't worry I consulted the nurse and I'll get better(LOL). Today yay no fever, but I feel weak, and a little dizzy, and my head, back, arms and legs still hurt but I am getting better.
To clarify, here in El Salvador(and all of central america) they don't celebrate thanksgiving. We celebrated thanksgiving because Hna and president Cordon decided to have thanksgiving multizonas and we ate thanksgiving dinner. Were it not for that Thanksgiving would have passed without comment.
I con't really think of to much to write today. Sorry.
Con mucho cariño
Hna Allen

Feliz Dia de accion de Gracias!(un dia tarde)

2011-11-25T14:50:00.000-07:00

Hello y'all. Happy late thanksgiving!
This week was changes Sat we we worked (yeay) we sent Hna Estrada wih the other Hnas and we went and worked with one of the young men. He likes to accompany us. Sunday we knocked a ton of doors to remind people of church, but unfortunately all of our investigators 'had conflicts that came up suddenly' and couldn't come, and a few Recent converts and Less actives that we have been working with also said the same thing. Sunday afternoon worked some more-in trio, which is not the most effective if you want to know the truth. and Sunday night surprise surprise Hna Estrada had changes, Hna Salazar stayed with me, and Hna Sierra had changes and Hna Montalvan is training.
Monday we went to the office after lunch( Pres asked me last mon if I could change my horario to accomodate the other responsabilities of the elders in the office on mondays so now it is 2 until I am done on mondays which is fine, it is a little less crazy in the pm and won't be eating fast food with the frequencia that I was before yeay for my arteries). The news came and I did their health interviews and all the things that I needed to do with them before we went back to the house. But fortunately we were in divisions so even though I didn't work, Hna Estrada and a member were working. Whoot!
Tuesday was the new people meeting, we left before noon, and got to work all the afternoon. Tuesday night Hna Woods came and Slept in the house, and she took a small collection of stuff for my family(I hope it makes it through customs) she's going to mail it to you.
Wednesdaywe worked all day and in the night two other ex companions came and slept in the house Hna Fuentes and Hna Bermudez before they left on thursday. Thursday we planned in the AM and in the PM we were supposed to have a thanksgiving multizona, but Hna Salazar and I had to take a misionary to the hospital for xrays, and we got back just in time to eat yay! we got back to our area and worked for an hour, and now it is P-day. Oh and midst all of this Wednesday night we sent an elder with severe abdominal and back pain to the hospital and he was passing a kidney stone. He was treated for that, and they did some exams to see if he had more, and yes he did, so he's coming back today to finish passing them in his house here in santa ana.

In my cleaning of the house I came across a great talk by President Benson-beware of pride(it was in spanish so it was called cuidaos del orgullo) wich was a great talk. I learned a lot, and as I shared what I was learning with my companion she also wanted to read it. It really helped me see that pride such a huge weakness, for everyone and I am definately not an exception.
Look it up it is from one of the conferences 1989 I don't remember which one.

Thats All I have time for.
Love ya
Hna Allen

Recuerdo del cumpleaños de la hermana Allen. F E L I C I D A D E S

2011-11-25T10:20:00.001-07:00

My birthday in the house of our cocinera! (really it is tuesday but I got to celebrate my birthday almost all week)

Fwd...

cumpleaños feliz, hna. Allen. Que El Padre Celestial le bendiga siempre, reciba abrazos flores y muchas sonrisas de quienes le rodean, espero le gusten las fotos.

P day again!

2011-11-18T07:51:00.000-07:00

Hola familia
I'm writing a little early today because... we're going to the temple!!!!
this week has gone by really fast. Let me think Friday after we wrote we went and made baliaras with Pres and Hna Cordon, then we had our ward mission activity which went well. sat was a pretty normal domingo as well, monday I went to the office and we changed my hours of office for mondays, so I'll get to work a little in the morning. wohoo! Tuesday we did intercambios in the morning, but in the pm we had to go to the office for an interview for one of my comps, and then we came back and worked some more. Wednesday (Hna Estrada and I) went to Ataco and Hna Salazar stayed and worked in the area with a member(divisions), we left about 8 in the mornign and got back at almost 6 at night. We took Hna Bonilla's things to her and Hna Estrada packed her stuff and we brought it back to our house, and went and worked for 2 hours. Thursday we planned as a district in the stake center, and after we planned we made tejadas(another food from Honduras, its what happens when you are the only non honduranian in your district.). Yummy! went back and worked, and today WOHOOO we're going to the temple.
We've got some great investigators, that I love so much, but they haven't come to church yet. They unfortunately have a busness on sunday they go to the concha(soccerfields) and sell things to the hungry and thirsty jugadores. We also are teaching the wife of a less active member, who unfortunately her greatest challenge is her husband. He doesn't want to come to church, and she doesn't want to come with out him. We also dropped one of our investigators, it is sad, but she had no desire to know if it is true, let alone come to church. :(
I hope that I get to send a package with Hna Woods when she goes home(Wed). She said she'd mail it to y'all from arizona. Lucky me I live in the house where she'll sleep the night before she leaves, and where she will rearrange her bags for the plane.
Changes are this next week. I don't have any idea what will happen. I do know that I won't be in trio for another change(4 hnas come, 3 go so we'll be back to even numbers with the Hnas). Whohoo. Trios are difficult to teach, to tract, to arrange everything, but at times very convenient because we only have to find 1 sister to be able to do divisions.
Love y'all tons
Hna Allen

Greetings (otra vez)

2011-11-11T10:23:00.002-07:00

Hola familia!
This week has flown by. I had a great birthday. Went to church and the hermanas of the ward (who remembered or who were told that it was my birthday) congratulated me and gave me hugs, which was nice. Douglas was confirmed. which was great, and then in the afternoon we went and had a very yummy lunch with one of the sisters of the ward, all new food, but all very yummy. it still surprises me that I have been here for almost 8 months and still am eating new food every so often.(with amazing regularity to tell the truth). Then in the afternoon one of the niñas of the ward was baptised, and we helped with that, so I got to eat cake on my birthday, and then the night of my birthday with 4 honduranias in the same house they celebrated my birthday in typical honduranian fasion, they ambushed me and broke eggs over my head, and then poured eggs and flour over my head. So at 1030 at night I was showering to wash the egg and flour out of my hair. (picture included). Monday I was in the office, my two hondurania companions made baliaras(very very yummy) and I did a ton of health things to prepare for those coming week after next. We have been going to pt every day with hna estrada and the therapist says she thinks after tomorrow hna estrada doesn't need any more therapy just to take precautions. that means that (I hope) that next week will be normal. worked hard all week, today we went to pt with both of my comps, and then after we write we are going to the house of Pres and Hna Cordon to make baliaras for them(they were in belize on mon so they didn't get to try the baliaras in the office). Today we are also going to have a ward mission activity.
The honduranias joke that they will teach me how to dance punta and sing the honduranian national anthem. With all the honduranians that I've lived with its about time LOL. My district right now consists of me, and 6 honduranians. (2 elders, and 4 hnas.)
Thats all I have time for now, thank you all for all the birthday wishes, and for the updates on your lives,
Love y'all
Hna Allen

Happy birthday!

Pictures from this change

2011-11-04T11:14:00.002-06:00

Halloween

1st cambios locos

Baptism of Douglas

Saludos

2011-11-04T11:00:00.000-06:00

Hola familia, mando saludos de Santa Ana
This week has flown by and much has happened, sat was a normal day, I was finally able to go to work with all three of us and we had fun. Sunday was stake conference, and President gave a very good talk about how all the members are missionaries, and all should be working to get to know people who aren't members, and to share the gospel with all. After Stake conference we went back to the house, president called me and said that he wanted one of the Elders to go to the hospital, so I went to the hospital with one of my companions, and left the other with the other two missionaries in our ward with the hope that they could find a sister to divisions, and we stayed at the hospital all afternoon waiting for why he sisn't recover with the medications we had given him, and why he was getting worse, turns out he had amoebas and intestinal infection, and the antibiotics just weren't enough, so he got dehydrated and weak, but we started him on a different antibiotic and an antiparasite med, and he's getting better, he left the hospital early on Monday, and after he left the hospital Hna Bonilla and I headed to San Salvador for immigration(for her) we got back about 7pm and only had time for one lesson (FHE with some recent converts!) before we had to go and let a couple of sisters in our house, One of the sisters had an x-ray that said she had fractured her foot about 5 weeks ago now, she thought she had only sprained it because she could walk on it, but she was concerned because it was still swollen. She says it doesn't hurt at all now, but the Dr ordered physical therapy and that is here in santa ana, so Hna Bonilla went to Ataco with Hna Pappas and Hna Estrada is my new third wheel for then next week or so. So tuesday we started therapy with Hna Estrada and to the office to do the things that I needed to do there, and Hna Salazar was again in division with a future missionary. Wednesday we left Hna Estrada in the house with a member and we went out to work, but we had to go home early so the member could go home. Thursday Hna Salazar had to go to San Salvador for immigration and I was with the companion of another missionary for all day, and with Hna Estrada, We only got to work for a few hours because of the Physical Therapy and because we couldn't find anyone to stay with hna Estrada in the AM, but in the PM we went and taught a few lessons and then went and traded companions, and when we came back the member had to go back to her house but we did divisions for a little bit of time, and I stayed in with hna Estrada. Today we've gone to therapy, and pulled out money, and after we write we'll go back to the house and leave Hna Estrada with one of the members.
This week I think I have been being taught about sacrifice and to use my time more wisely. My desire to work and find and do all the things that are responsibilities of normal missionaries have been frustrated with all the crazyness of this week, and the little time we have had to work we've had to try to use even more efficiently than normal. Plans a-d for all times of day, and put things close together, things like that.
Thats all I have time for this week, but Love Y'all
Love Hna Allen

Saludos

2011-10-28T14:02:00.000-06:00

Hola y'all
greetings from El Salvador.
Just got back from San Salvador again. (went yesterday for migration things as well) Hna Salazar had an apointment with a neurologist about her bells palsy. She is getting better. The process is slow, but is is happening. The Dr said she can work again. I am really excited for that, that we don't have to keep doing divisions with the ward, and finding a sister who can stay in the house with her. Also her PT wil change from every day, to 2-3 x a week. Yeay MWF and we'll be able to work the otherdays normal.
This week has flown by, and sadly I can't think of anything really interesting that happened this week other than our trip to migration(really just the police station in San Salvador) for immigration paperwork. But even that was pretty routine.
we're closing in on week 4, I have got to get on buying the parts for the emergency backpacks. President has been out of the mission this week, and luckily(knocking on wood here) nothing big has happened.
I'm trying to teach my companions english. I understand so well how they feel as they try to say a word, and it just doesn't come out the way that it should, and they can't hear the difference. I remember saying words(and still do say words) and people say the word back to me to correct me, and I say it again, and they still correct me, and I can't figure out why because I think I say it just like them, and they can't help me know why I am not saying it the same as them or how to correct it, just that is isn't right. But we are all stubborn and we'll get it.
This week I have been studying in Mosiah. I'm working my way through the book of mormon in spanish, and it has been a bit of a slow process. But I am reading about King Limhi, and how the lord helped them escape from captivity and guided them to live with King Mosiah. But before that I was struck by the part where he asks Ammon(not the one with the arms) about who could translate to they could learn about this people who were destroyed and why they were destroyed. What a wise man, to want to learn from the mistakes of others. That we may be so wise to learn from the mistakes and successes of others so that we don't have to suffer the same things they did. We have such abundance of sources to learn from. I have also been thinking(and teaching) about the way we use our time. Where are our priorities? The things that are most important to us are the things on which we spend the most time. One of my recent converts was telling me about a conversation he had with a coworker about the sabbath day. His coworker asked him why he gives up a day of fun or a day to earn more money every week, and Lisandro asked him how much time in a week does this coworker give to our heavenly father? He told him heavenly father has given us our lives, and only asks for us to give him one day a week. He said, I don't think that is to much to ask, that I dedicate one day a week to my heavenly father and serving others.
dani thanks for the letters. Did you know that the dear elder letters don't come one letter per page, but stretched over a whole bunch of pages so I recieved 7 letters, pasted into one long letter it was about as tall as me. Thanks it was great. And that talk was a great one too. I really enjoyed it.
Love yáll
Hna Allen

Hola de Santa Ana

2011-10-21T11:17:00.000-06:00

Hola familia
THis letter I hope is a liitle longer because I won't have tantos personas talking to me. I realized that I didn't say much about what has happened the week of changes and this week even more things have happened. Last week ( ithink I told you that my companion Hna Sanchez had changes) and I was with hna Bermudez who is from El Salvador. She is a great misionary and will finish her mission this change. Friday was a crazy day, with problems with the computers among other things. Sat and sun passed a little more stressful than normal mostly because of the suspense about what was going on in our mission, the tues before changes it started to rain, and we didn-t see the sun again until this wednesday. Many areas here were flooded, and many people's houses melted with the rain(some of the houses are made of adobe, and with a lot of rain the dirt washes away and the walls disolve). Also alot of people build next to the rivers and canals and with a lot of rain the water leaves and floods the adobe houses and washes away everything they have. Here in my area it wasn-t to bad. We have mostly houses of cement and aluminum. and a few of adobe with plaster on the outside, its the adobe that have't been plastered that melt. Lunes was a long suspenseful day in the office, and I was infomed of multizone for thursday. All of the mission on the same day at different times. Tuesday I was informed that Hna Bermudez was having changes, and my new companeras are Hna Bonilla(from Columbia) and Hna Salazar(from Honduras) Hna Bonilla just got here to our mission, she had visa troubles and has been working in Columbia sul for 4 months. She is trained as far as missionary work, and it is great to learn from her as far as that goes. SHe just has to be oriented to our mission and the things we do differently. Hna Salazar is the Hna that has Bells Palsy, and she is gradually getting better. SHe is here in Santa Ana for PT and we are doing divisions almost everyday so she can go to PT. Also the Docs told her she can-t 'andar por ariba and abajo' which means she is resting for this last week and for this next week. She has some ability to move her face a little wich is great. So Tues in the PM Hna Bonilla came in from COlombia, and Wedesday in the AM Hna Bermudez and Hna Stegelmeir went to their area, and Hna Salazar went and packed all of her belongings and came back. Thursday was a very sad day, as we had our multizona and Presidente informed us that 8 missionaries returned home dishonorable released. We recieved a lecture on obedience and President put emphasis on a few rules for our protection. As well as told us that from now on we will only have 45 minutes on the computer on P-day.
But it made me think about the purpose of rules and commandments. It reminded me of the general conference talk where a cow gets into the wheat and bloats and dies because she was pushing the fence. That is what happened to these missionaries they were pushing the rules, seeing if they could just reach a little farther if they could maybe taste just a little bit of that wheat on the other side. and they succeeded in tasting it, but it had dire consequences. The commandments(and for us misioneros the mission rules) are like the fence. We as members who have these protections should see them as a huge deterent that we shouldn-t be anywhere near them. Don't push them, don't see how close you can get or how far to the other side you can reach. They are there for our protection, not for our restriction.
I need to write president still, but I love you all, if you've heard about the flooding here before I mentioned it, don't worry I am fine and the sun is shining and we are drying out.
Oh something funny We were talking the other day about how many companions and areas we've had and I realized that I have had 4 areas and 8 companions in my 7 months in the mission field. Chistoso. :)
Love y'all,
Hna Allen

Hola Y'all

2011-10-14T15:11:00.000-06:00

Hola,
changes were this week. My changes were interesting. My companion went to chalchuapa. Which is weird because we were only together for one change. and I was training. But now my companion is Hna Bermudez. SHe is from here. THings that are weird that have happened this week, One on the things is that one of the hnaas has bells balsy, and an elder had a suspected dengue. But all is well, and all will recover. ALso Hna Montalvan is is my house now. She is in the other half of my ward.
I am of course growing and loving hte mision.
SOrry is it so short
Love ya
Hna ALlen

Saludos de Santa Ana

2011-10-07T12:39:00.000-06:00

Hola familia!
This week has passed by rapidly, for the most part we have been healthy and working hard(I haven't been sick, don't worry, its is my comp) Monday I had a video conference with Dr Drake the area medical advisor, and assorted mission nurses from all of central america. It was very informative and helped me understand a few things that we need to do, and a few things that we need to stop doing.(or rather we get to stop doing) After that we had interviews with president, and he helped me see a few areas that we need to be working more efficiently. Tuesday the zone leaders had their monthly meeting with president and from what I understand the ax came down and the pressure was turned up, needless to say we've been asked to give more.
Conference was amazing of course. A little interesting for me, as I have come to realize I don't understand very well when I know they are speaking english, but I am hearing spanish. I got to listen to the last session in English(I finally found a sister to be in the room with all the north american elders.) and it was amazing. I am so excited for the Liahona for November.
Changes are this next week. It will be interesting to see what will happen.
I have been thinking about pressure this week. And I remembered a story about the potter and the clay. I'll butcher it, but it goes something like the potter applies pressure to the clay from the outside against the hand that is inside, and is able to form a beautiful vase. So if we feel as though the pressure is too much or that we will collapse under the pressure, maybe the problem isn't how much pressure is being applied, but rather how much of the potter's hand we have permitted inside our lives.
Love ya all
Love Hna Allen

Well, this has been an interesting week

2011-09-23T14:30:00.001-06:00

Hola mi familia,
this week has flown by with a series of very interesing things. the week end was pretty normal, Diana got baptized and confirmed :D Monday we went to the office, which was an interesting day, it took me all morning to find a computer that would let me access missionary medical, and I had to see if someone had sent me a picture of their rare skin thing in my personal email, which also took me all morning to access. The mission is handing over the responsability to make sure that all the missionaries are legal to offices in San Salvador next to the temple, and the woman in charge of that was there to check on that, which was rather enlightening to see how many are here legally, but with out their documents to prove it.
Tuesday we got to work the whole day(which has turned out to be a rarity), but it turned out to be a late night, because one area of Hermanas came to sleep in our house because of problems in their house. Wednesday we had our second meeting of the news, and we had a pretty good day after that, Thursday we had our zone meeting, and planned for the next week, and then we did intercambios with the 2 companionships in our ward. I had sick missionaries calling me until about 11, and then we had some emotional (drama) to deal with in the house, and I got to sleep about 11:30, and was awakened at 2:45 when one of the missionaries called me because his companion was writhing in pain with clasic symptoms of apendicitis. So I called a whole bunch of people at a ridiculously early hour of the morning to get him to the hospital (only the assistants and president have a car in our mission, and president is in Belize again and Hna cordon can't drive because of a problem with her knees.) so we looked for a member who could bring them to San Salvador(about an hour in car from where they were) early in the morning, In the end the assistants went and brought them in , and I had to wait until 5:30 when the first bus passed through our area to get to another bus stop to get to san salvador. We came back after visiting him in the hospital. and now I get to write to you all. I hope that this next week is a little less crazy so we can focus more on the missionary work than the missionaries.
Mi tiempo se acabó.
Les quiero mucho
Hna Allen

Hola fam!

2011-09-16T12:13:00.000-06:00

Hola familia! saludos de Modelo!

This week has flown by, and this day is flying by too, Today I am going to learn how to make atol which will be for an activity of the ward. We have to be there at 2 and we also have to go and get glasses for hna sanchez. Tomorrow we have a baptism of Diana Lora, we are so excited for that. I am amazed how much my spanish has gotten better solo because I live with 3 latinas. I am learning so much and I am loving the people and the mission.

Happy late birthday to Jake and Zac.

Yesterday was a holiday here, like the 4th of july, it was hard to find people in their houses because they went to the parade, and all the festivities. I still am not sure what they were celebrating exactly, but when I asked my latin comp and roomates they didn't really know why either.
This change so far has been very divertido. We smile and laugh a lot.

The rest of the Hnas are waiting for me to finish, and I am waiting for Elder Guirola to finish passing all the numbers from one phone to the other. The phone that I was using stopped reading my sim card, but it reads his, so we are switching, and he's putting the phone numbers that are important for the nurse in the other phone.

Love ya tons,
Hna Allen

Hola bien rapido

2011-09-09T11:39:00.000-06:00

Hola y'all, this week has been a crazy one. With a lot of nursing and not much missionary work, my poor entrainee, I just hope I can help her separate my responabilities as the nurse from the responsibilities of the normal missionary. This week we have to go and get an eye exam(for her) so she can 1 study with out getting headaches, and 2 work with out getting headaches.
We get along well, and we are working as well as we can with all the caos of the health of the missionaries.
of course I am enjoying the work, and am learning to depend even more on the lord.
We had a meeting with Elder Amado on wednesday, and I learned so much, and it made me want to be such a better missionary.
Here attached is a pic of me and Hna Sanchez. Yes she is taller than me(and in this pic she is slouching).
I have been studying about the restauracion so I can teach it better. I have learned more about the apostasy this last week, and about the dispensations. I love the pattern there, God calls a prophet to teach the people, sometimes they accept and sometimes they reject the message, and when they reject the prophet for a time there isn't a prophet, but He always calls another. I have also been Studying about the atonement. I love studing about the atonement. My testimony has strengthened so much through my studing and testifying about the atonement. Of all the miracles that Christ did here on the earth, the atonement is truly the most amazing. That we can all be healed from the casm that we have between us and our Heavenly Father. How great is the plan of the Lord.
Love Y'all, but my time is up.
Hna Allen

Pictures from the mission

2011-09-09T11:36:00.000-06:00

Here's a collection of pictures Mem sent home.

This first is a couple of pinatas, the other Hna's bought them, that reminded me of my nieces.
This is my first companionship, Hna Clark & Hna Woods.
The next two are from our Hna activity.

Three of our baptisms. Claudia, Lisandro, and Jonathan.

Love, Mem

Saludos de Modelo(todo via)

2011-09-02T11:29:00.000-06:00

Hola Familia!
We had changes this week and let me tell you, what a change. Hna Woods headed to another zone, to open a new area with a new missionary, and I am here in Modelo, wth the cellular that everyone calls when they get sick. Oh and my companion-also a new Hna. So I am Training for my first time, and I've got the full carga of the Mission health Specialist. I forsee great growth-at least on my part. So we've had an interesting week. We're teaching Diana Lara and I just love it, She accepts every commitment and Is gaining such a strong testimony of the church. We also found another family the other day, and I am so excited to go back and teach them again. We are really focusing on families, because the goal is the temple.
Quiero ver... Sunday night we found out about changes, monday we went to San Salvador to do some things for nursing(and visit a member in the hospital) and then we came back and we attended to the new Missioneries, and Hna Woods packed, then Tuesday we had our new people meeting and Hna Woods went to her new are with her new comp and I came back to mine with my new comp, and we started working. And thats what we´ve been doing everyday since. I really do love the mission. Hna Cordon always says the mission is like a pressure cooker. That we learn so much, and grow so much, faster than others who don't have this experience.
Love ya'll
Hna Allen

saludas de El Salvador

2011-08-26T11:51:00.000-06:00

Hola amado familia!
Things have been going well this week, we had a few miracles(I love miracles) happen this week. First we had one investigator, who when we met him told us he would never be baptised, tell us that he will be baptised in December. HUGE step for him, he had told us that when his daughter comes in December he'll be baptized, but he told us that whether or not she comes, he'll get baptized, he also promised he'd come to church the first sunday that his son is out of the hospital and back in the house(their son had a brain tumor that was operated on about a month ago)-.another huge miracle for him. We have seen him progress so much while we've been working with him.
Our other major miracle of the week came when we dropped by the church on mututal night to talk to the bishop really fast. He told us that one day he had been in his mom's house (which is infront of the church) when this young woman with a baby in her arms come over and said that someone from the church(the bishop of the other ward) had told her to talk to our bishop. SHe asked bishop if he could baptise her baby. He told her that we don't baptize babies in our church, we give them blessings, but that if she would like, we could baptize her, she said she'd like to be baptized, and bishop took down her name and address and when we came by he gave them to us. Her name is Diana, and she said she had gone to church with a friend 5 years ago, and they had given her a Gospel principles book that she had been reading as well as they had taught her how to pray, and that she had been praying since then. SHe said that she had been praying about Joseph Smith and she believed that he was a prophet... she is so amazing. She has been through so much in the last 5 years, and we are jsut so thrilled that we get to help her find the path to happiness. We're planning on the 17th of september for her baptism, and we're so excited about it.
Changes are this week. I am pretty sure I am staying, but we'll see on sunday night.
The El Salvador Temple opened to the public on tuesday the 23 and president said that one of these p-days we'll get to go to the temple. I am excited about that.
I read an article in a liahona about our refined heavenly home, and about learning to be more refined here will help us feel more at home there. It made me think about how our homes are supposed to be a little bit of peace and calm in the sea of caos of the world, but that so often(too often) we let the busy pace of the world flow right on into our homes, and we don't have a place of peace and calm.But how important it is to make that effort to have our home be that bit of calm where we can go to relax and enjoy those we love.
I also was reading another article about finding our own place to go to think and ponder and pray-to meditate- it talked about finding our own sacred grove. That doesn't mean wandering out into the wilderness or anything, just means finding a place in our home where we can have time to really talk to our heavenly father. where we can open our hearts and pour out our concerns and problems and honestly talk to Him. I think sometimes we (I personally) are so used to the formula, heavenly father, we are grateful, we ask for, in the name of... that we forget to actually talk. To pour out our souls in prayer, so Our loving heavenly father can help us. I have been taking some time in my personal prayers to turn it into a conversation, not just hey here is a list of things i am grateful for, and hey i'd like these thiings, but really say so today we didn't have a good day, or today was such a great day, or i have this concern, or i feel so blessed. I think at times I have been guilty of not really letting my prayers get beyond the ceiling, because they didn't come from my heart. I have gained such a great testimony that when we sincerely pour our hearts out to him, when we take our problems and concerns to him, maybe he won't take them away(probably not) BUT he will take the weight of them, so we can continue.
The dedication was great and our meeting with President Eyring was wonderful, I learned so much and it helped me change my perspective a bit.
I love these people, and I love learning about the gospel. And I love helping others learn about the gospel as well.
Con mucho amor,
Hna Allen

Saludos de Santa Ana

2011-08-18T13:50:00.000-06:00

Wow, well greetings y'all. This week was interesting. We finally found one of our investigators, Yuli, she and her family have part way moved to another area, but she still is visiting the house here in our area on occasion. She is great. Every time we teach her a principle, she immediately starts living it or at least trying to live it. She was living with her boyfriend here in our area, and when she read the Law of Chastity pamphlet, she had a talk with her boyfriend and told him she'd only come by durring the day and her and her kids moved back to their other house in the other area. Which complicates things, but He decided that he doesn't want to lose his family to alcohol and is starting to change, so I think they'll get married. We're going to teach them on Sat and I'm excited. Also another investigator has a baptismal date, and I feel good about this date. Next Sat(27). He's had 3 fechas fall, and his big problem is he really loves playing futbol on sundays.
Tomorrow we have our planiing in the am then we are going to San Salvador in the pm, so today we are doing all the normal pday things(except the office elders who only get to write and buy food today and the rest of the day is spent like all other thursdays-in the office. pobrecitos.)
I have been studying Arrepentimento y la expiacion. (repentance and the atonement) What a wonderful and amazing gift and example. Our perfect brother submitted himself to the Father's will in all things, his life, death, resurrection and of course that pattern continued afer his death(it talks about him having other commandments of the father that he had to do when he is talking to the Nephites about why he has to go.) And just as he did all that, we need to be willing to submit to the father's will in all things as well. En verdad we need to have our will be to do the will of our Heavenly Father. I love to think about that he knows me, and his plan for my life(and all of our lives) is so much greater than that plan that I could immagine. And If I am willing to put my life in his hands by choosing to dedicate my time, decisions and efforts to things that bring me closer to him, and to doing his will(by following the spirit which will be with us if we are making decisions and putting in the effort to live a life with the constant companionship of the Holy Spirit) he will lift me up to my highest potential. I can do great things in the kingdom of God. I can be a great instrument in his hands.
I am really excited for tomorrow. It is like I get another general conference this year!( in addition to the other normal 2)
I am so glad for the opportunity to be serving a mission right now, it is so wonderful to be able to dedicate all of my time, thoughts and efforts to the lord. I love you all, and I love hearing how things are going at home, I hope all are happy and healthy.
Love
Hna Allen

Mensajito de El Salvador

2011-08-12T11:25:00.000-06:00

Buenas dias familia!!!
This week has not had the luxury of flying. We´ve been having difficulties helping our investigators keep their commitments and two of our families that we were teaching dropped us, which is better than the eternal sneak and peak. But we have had some great lessons with our investigators, and I think they have come to understand why we keep teaching them about the book of mormon, and asking them to read it, and pray about it. I have been studying about faith, which has been very enlightening for me, I have really come to understand better how powerful faith is. I mean I have always known the scripture that says if we had the faith of a mustard seed we´d be able to move mountains, and all the scriptures that say, when we have faith, nothing is impossible. But really I have come to understand better that faith leads us to action. I have the faith that this message can change lifes. I know it can. Hna Woods says its the power of positive thinking, but I have come to believe that positive thinking is faith. Faith that everything will work out in the end. The gospel is so amazing. The gospel really is a great problem fixer, or rather a personal strengthener, even if the problem doesn't go away, the gospel gives us the perspective and strength to fix it.
But that is enough of the past week, our next week looks really great! THe greatest thing is that next friday we (the two missions in El Salvdor) will have a meeting with the general athorities that will be here for the dedication. President Eyring and Elder Christofferson. AND I get to be in the choir that will do a special music number :D and then on Sunday (21) will be the dedication and we get to go to all three sessions. XD I am not sure if we´ll have P-day on Friday next week or not, because if we do we won't be able to work at all, with having to be in San Salvador by 4pm. (pday usually ends for us at 5pm and it takes about an hour to San Salvador). I am so excited for the Dedication! and the choir! We´ll practice on monday, which works out great because I am already in the office, which is in the Stake Center where we have the choir practice(it is pretty central to the El Salvador part of our mission).
It has been really hot and the people all say it is abnormal, especially because it is what they call winter(that just means it is supposed to rain everyday and it hasn't). Nothing compared to you Sister Walker, I´m sure.
Nothing really exciting has happened with the health side, an Elder has a pretty bad sprained ankle, but he'll get better.
We learned a fun new game today in our Zone meeting, Pobricito mi gatito(my poor little cat) every one in a circle an one person in middle as cat, on all fours, and goes up one of the people in the circle and meows, and the person has to say pobricito mi gatito with out smiling, and if you smile you are the cat. It it was a fun game to play, especially because every one is laughing so hard.

Yo espero que todos tiene salud, y que les vayan bien
con amor
Hna Allen

Well...

2011-08-05T11:23:00.000-06:00

Hola Familia!
Another week has flown by here in modelo. We've found more people to teach, and we're excited about that, though this past week was a little rough as far as finding new investigators. We're working hard and I'm loving the work. My spanish is of course a work in progress, and I imagine that it will be for all of my life. So good news, on the 19th the 2 missions will have a special meeting with the General authorities that will be coming for the dedication, Elder Eyring and Elder Christofferson. I am really excited for that, also We have permision(and almost orders) to go to all three sessions of the temple dedication on the following sunday, and I am also super excited for that.
SO adventures for this week, on sunday we had a baptism, which was complicated by 2 things that amazingly had nothing to do with Lisandro (the one getting baptised) First, one of the Hermanas dislocated her shoulder puttingon her backpack, she had dislocated it before and hadn't let it heal well, so we had her coming in to the hospital in Santa Ana, where President Cordon was going to meet her, and then it was pouring down rain, which you'd think wouldn't mean anything to a place that always has rain, but for some reason when it rains, no one comes to events, or wants to leave their houses(we wanted to do divisions and I could go to the hospital and Hna Woods could stay at the baptism, but we couldn't find anyone who was willing to leave their house in the rain, which was why president met her at the hospital). We almost couldn't have the baptism because we didn't have the priesthood present to be able to perform the ordinance. Then as we were finally getting ready to start the baptism, President Cordon Called, and said that the hospital in Santa Ana didn't feel confident to put the shoulder back in place so we had to take her to Santa Ana, Luckily we finished the baptism, and we just getting ready to have refreshments when President Cordon came to get us and we headed to San Salvador to the hospital, but the rain had caused an accident on the highway so what would have been a 45 min trip to San Salvador turned out to be a 2 hour trip to san salvador, we got to the hospital, they put the shoulder in, and we brought her back to our house for the night, then she went back to her area the next morning.
Other than that it hasn't been to bad, a few people with amoebas, a person with an ear infection that didn't belive me when I said that antibiotics take more that 12 hours before you can notice that they are working... things like that.
I have been studying about how important it is that we as missionaries invite people to do things. Everytime we invite someone to do something(will you come to church? will you read the book of mormon? will you pray?) we are asking them to change, to sacrifice something they would have done for this better thing, and that really is the basic principle of repentance, a change of a habit or action for a better(holier) habit or action. Also when we invite people to do something we invite them to gain their own testimony. It is when we are being obedient to a principle that we recieve testimony that it is true. Like it says in Malachi about tithing, prove me herewhith that I will open up the windows of heaven and pour out blessings upon you, or something like that, sorry I have only read it in spanish for quite a while. But the key is Prove me herewith. He invites us to keep the commandment of tithing and promises that when we do we will recieve blessings, but not until after we do it.
I love the gospel. I love that it can be so simple, that even a small child can do it, but that there is so much to learn that one could study it for an entire lifetime and still not have learned it all.
We planned for week four yesterday. Crazy I feel like we just started this change, and already we are almost half way through it. I have enjoyed having Hna Woods as my companion, and I just hope that I can learn how to be as great of a missionary and nurse as she is while I'm with her. I feel like I still have so much to learn about everything, and every day I just find more things I just don't know. But I have learned so much up to this point.
I love being a missionary. In our multizona last week one of the Elders that is going home this change said, you just have to learn to love the work, and if you love looking for people and serving people, and teaching the gospel, and you really love the work, even if you have days when you knock every door in a neighborhood and get nothing but rejection, you'll still be having a good day, because you are doing what you love to do. He said that the attitude we have makes a huge difference in the experience you have. The time passes whether you are miserable or just loving every minute. Love it.
Thats all I have time for now.
I love you all so much,
Love Hna Allen

Friday already?

2011-07-29T11:06:00.000-06:00

Hola family!
Wow this week really did fly by fast, we had a multizona with president and I came away with a list of things that I need to do and habits I need to form to be a better missionary, as well as a few clarifications of the rules. One of which has to do with only 1 hour on the computer every week, so my letters will be shorter. We had a good week, we have a golden investigator, who is going to get baptized this sunday, we are really excited for him. although he has been looking for another house and he might wind up living outside of our ward boundaries shortly after he gets baptized. We have been looking for the references from the temple, and have been wandering the streets usually durring the hottest time of the day, which isn't the funnest, but it could definately be worse, since the hottest time of day is probably only in the mid 90s. The water for all of Santa Ana went out very early in the morning on thursday, so we are without water for the second day in a row. Sadly we didn't have our pila full, but there is a little faucet in our house that has a little trickle of water that will come out of it, so we've been catching that and we used that to bathe in and to wash our hands, but there is not enough water to flush the toilets, so thats getting a little gross. Also the dishes are starting to pile up. We are hoping that the water comes back tonight or tomorrow so we can wash our dishes, and take real showers, and flush the toilets, and so everyone who doesn't buy purified water can have water to drink. They had water trucks that came around and people came running with anything that could carry water to be able to bring it back to their houses. There were some people that were carrying water at least a quarter of a mile last night one five gallon bucket at a time. Really you don't appreciate what you have until its gone.
Mom, thanks for the recipe for snickerdoodles, the only thing I haven't been able to find is Cream of Tartar (people don't bake much here) so I don't know if there is some way I could make it, or if there is a substitute for it... :D
In my personal study I have been studying about the blessings that correlate with keeping the commandments, because blessings come from obedience to the laws upon which they are predicated. As I have started from the top of the list of commandments we teach from lesson 4 in chapter 3 of preach my gospel.(first is obedience, then pray always then study the scriptures etc) I have really been impressed by the simplicity of those things that if we do we will be so much stronger and be able to return to live with Heavely Father. I have realized that so often we are like the Israelites in the old testament, who when they were afflicted with fiery serpents, all they had to do was look at the brass serpent and they would be healed, but like Alma says to many died because they would not look. Such a simple thing could have saved them, yet they would not do it. Today we are all surrounded by fiery serpents of the adversary. They come in many forms, however the remedy for them is no less simple, even the primary children know the answers. Have family home evening, personal and family prayer, read the scriptures as a family and personally (in spanish it forms an accronym NOE noche de hogar, oracion, y estudio de las escrituras). when we do these things we too can be protected from the fiery serpents of the adversary.
How often we try to make life so much more complicated than it needs to be. I remember an object lesson I saw once, where the goal is to put a certain amount of sugar and a few big objects like eggs in a jar. If you start with the sugar, there is no room for the eggs, but if you start with the eggs the sugar flows around and fills in the spaces between the eggs. These basics are the eggs, the most important things, and everything else is the sugar, and when we put everything else first of course we can't find time to read our scriptures, pray and have FHE, but if we put them first, everything else that fills our lives will learn to flow around those things that are really basic fundamentals for our spiritual well being.
I Love you all, and I love to hear from you.
Love Hna Allen

Another week bites the dust...

2011-07-22T12:04:00.000-06:00

Wow this week has flown by! Hna Woods and I are still together, and still in modelo, my first time to have 2 changes in the same place. Monday we spent almost all day in the office, and in our house getting it ready for the new missionaries. The ones from guatemala came in in bus and were her about 4 so we did their health interviews and settled them into the house, and Hna Woods and I went and worked for an hour(better than not at all), and taught a family about fasting, their son was going to have surgery the next day and they were going to fast for it. The missioneries from Provo(the Hnas already speak spanish and so only had 3 weeks in the MTC) came at about 10, and after we did their interviews and got them settled, we helped Hna Capra back to leave for Belice the next morning. To come on plane from guatemala you can have 2 bags that weigh 50lbs, but to go to belice it is 2 bags that weigh 35 lbs, so she was trying to figure out what she could leave behind. An interesting challenge. She wound up leaving an assortment of clothes and her shampoos, and lotions, and a few other toiletries. Tuesday we had the new people meeting, it was a very different format, go figure different president, but it was good and we learned a lot, and then We had a baptism! Claudia finally got baptised, yeay! I am so excited for her, she is so powerful and I know that the gospel really will change her life. Wednesday we got to work for all of the morning, but we had to go back to the house to wait for the Office elders to bring the suitcases of the Hnas that were leaving, and we waited for a while, they were delayed by a huge rainstorm that we were so thrilled to have been inside when it hit, the other Hnas in modelo didn't have such luck, and they didn't have their umbrellas either. But the Elders finally brought the suitcases, and we visited a menos activo that said she is coming back to church on sunday even if it means she loses her weekend job. :D
Thursday we had our district meeting and we taught a few really positive investigators and we planned a wedding for this saturday for one of the investigators and a menos activo. :) He has a fecha for next Sat. :)
And now we are to Friday once again.
Anyway, things are going well her in modelo, and the nursing part has been relatively quiet, only the new missionaries that came from Provo are sick, which is just the shock of the food and culture being so different, they'll be better in a few days. I think that is another reason why the CCM is such a good thing, because it gives us the opportunity to be sick when we are close to the bathroom all day.
This week I've been studying about how important it is to understand who we are. We are children of Heavenly Father, and when we can understand our divine heritage, we can understand that we are capable of so much, and also that there is nothing and no one but our selves that can keep us from Heavenly father. It is a great truth, and when we truly understand it we want to do our best and be our best everyday. We realize that nothing is impossible. Our vision of our self worth is infinately increased when we understand our divine potential.
So this week is the last week of The temple open house, and today is our ward's last bus trip but we don't have any investigators to bring this time so we're not going this time. We have gone 2 times and loved every minute, but is takes a lot of working time to go to San Salvador, go through the temple and then come back. Most of an afternoon, and since we really have so little working time to begin with, it really is important to use it in the most effective way, which unfortunately is not going to the temple open house.
BUT there is a chance that we'll get to be a part of the cultural celebration... small, but possible, AND President Cordon said that after the temple opens we'll get to go about once every 3 months(it will be a rotation through the zones, one per pday) on our pday. :D that is exciting. It is also really exciting that we can teach our recent converts that they can go and do baptisms for the dead. In the CCM we learned that the retention rate goes from in the 30% to in the 90% range when recent converts go to the temple to do baptisms for the dead right after their baptism. That is HUGE.
I am learning so much and I love these people so much, and it is such a great opportunity that I have to be here serving them.
Con Amor,
Hna Allen

Hola fam!

2011-07-15T12:05:00.000-06:00

SO this week has flown by again. We unfortunately didn't have much time to work this week, with meetings and temple and a few things the ward mission leader wants us to try, they are good, but unfortunately take time, which is such a rare and precious commodity. We have 2 baptism dates before the end of the month, one is a 16 year old, Claudia, she wants to get baptized, but we haven't gotten permission from her parents. SHe actually lives in the area of our zone leaders, but she comes to church with her boyfriend and his family in our ward, so we're teaching her, and the Zone leaders went to her house and taught her mom, which apparently was an interesting experience, she had a lot of questions and then the dad came home drunk and mad, but they have an apt to go back tonight and talk to them again. THe plan is tomorrow for the baptism, and we are praying that her mom will give her permission. Our other baptism date is for next saterday. He is the boyfriend of one of our menos activos, they are going to get married next sat, and then he'll get baptized. with these 2 and the 3 from the other Hnas in our ward, we're on track to meet the goal for the ward. We also have another investigator that we're working with that says he'll get baptized in December(which for him is a huge step) he still hasn't come to church, but he has been talking to the missionaries off and on for most of his married life and all of his family are members, he just hasn't had the desire to be baptized. His daughter and her husband are supposed to come in December and stay for a few weeks and he wants his son in law to baptize him. The family has been having a rough time, one of their sons has a brain tumor, and a few weeks ago the tumor got big enough that he can't walk, before that he couldn't talk. He's going to have surgery on tuesday. We are praying and fasting for him.
We have found a family that went to the temple open house, (our menos activo and her boyfriend brought them) One of the members was supposed to pass to bring them to church, but she had an early meeting and forgot, so they were ready to come, but no one came to bring them. We're having a noche de Hermanamiento tonight, and they said they'd come. :) we'll call and remind them this afternoon while we are waiting for pres and hna Cordon to come and inspect our house.
I continue to find things interesting and funny to me here. Yesterday I was looking at our toilet paper, and I discovered about every 5 squares is a dog with a stop sign that says ¡parè!(stop!) whichis funny because 1 we have used 5 rolls of this TP before I dioscovered this disign, or realized what it is, and 2 none of the stop signs here say that. they all say alto(and all that I saw in guatemala as well). Another funny thing is the other night I discovered that there are frogs that make the sound that the guns for laser tag make. We were trying to figure out what that noise was, (it was dark, and all we could see was a little bit of land and then a wall) so we asked one of the youth, and she said it was a frog. If 1 I hadn't been in a very poor area of central america, and 2 if the sounds were a little closer together I could have believed that some one was playing laser tag on the other side of that wall. It was interesting, and funny to me.
THis week I have been studying about sacrifice(it is what I am teaching tonight in our noche de hermanamiento) and I have been thinking about how we have to be ready to give everything to heavenly father, and sometimes he asks for everything, but more often than not he only asks for a little. But so many people say yes I love Christ and I would do anything for him, oh, but I can't not work on sundays, or I won't be able to eat, oh and paying tithing is just to much to ask, I don't have enough as it is. I can't not play soccer on sundays, and not watching the game on sundays, that I just can't do. He asks us to be obedient, and sometimes(almost always) that requires that we sacrifice something to be obedient. Sometimes it is inconvenient, or hard, or it may even seem impossible, but for the lord nothing is impossible, and if he asks us to do it, he will provide a way that everything will work out in the end. We just have to take the first step. Like the story in Matthew 14 22-33, we have to have the faith and trust to step out of the boat, and then we have to keep out eyes on Christ and not allow the storm or the negative voices or difficulties to pull our eyes from Christ, and we will be able to do the impossible, like walk on the water.
So our job is to be willing to give everything we have, our time, our decisions, our worldy possesions if we have any, to be obedient to the commandments. Sometimes it will require everything, but if we aren't willing to give the little that he has asked of us, how would we ever be willing to give everything.
I have found that the world is pretty black and white. We are obedient or we aren't. A splash of cofee in your chocolate is still coffee. And while we can say that for some reason or another that rule doesn't apply to me, I am the exception, the reality is that the rules and commandments are for everyone. And that 'I am the exeption' is just an excuse to be disobedient. Our agency is a great gift that we have to choose which teacher we will follow, and let's face it if we aren't following christ and being obedient to the commandments, and counsel of our prophet, apostles, and other leaders who have been given the resonsibility to be representatives of Jesus Christ in his kingdom here on earth, we are really choosing to follow the other teacher(Matt 12:30). A quick analysis of the motives and purposes of each of these teachers helps us know who we really want to follow.
option white: Jesus Christ and Heavenly father; Purpose: to help us obtain eternal life, and to help us be able to live in their pressence again.(Moses 1:39 for behold this is mywork and my glory, to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man) Motive: Love.
OR option black: Lucifer, purpose: to make us miserable like him(2 Ne 2:27), motive: Hatred.
Which teacher would you prefer to follow?
Ok I think thats really all I have time for,
Love you all, Love Hna Allen

¡Hola familia!

2011-07-08T11:35:00.002-06:00

SO this week has flown by, it is amazing how fast this change has gone, monday will start week 6. We'll have a baptism tomorrow :D Claudia, she's 16 and she is the girlfriend of one of our members, she has gone to the temple open house 2 times and after she gets baptized she can volunteer with the other youth to put on the booties at the door, she is so excited for that. She is great, she told us the other day that she was late for school because she was reading the book of mormon. :D We are really excited for our first baptism in Modelo 2.

We are still looking for other promising investigators, we have been teaching, and most of the time they are willing to let is keep teaching them, but they don't have any desire to change, and repentance and accepting the restored gospel in your life is really a change. We've had a pretty good week, but a rough one as far as time to work, mon we went to the office, and then I went on divisions with Hna Montalvan and Hna Woods stayed in the house with our post op Hna(Hna Montalvan's comp) and then tues we actually got to work all day, and we taught 9 lessons.(that is a lot for us in a day) Wednesday we had District meeting, then we worked for a few hours and then we went to the temple open house, which was great, it is such a wonderful blessing to have a temple here in El Salvador. THe office elders are really busy sorting through the references from the temple, as well as all the other things that they have to do.

Anyway we got back from the temple at about 1030, and went to bed, and then thursday we had our weekly planning and our interviews with president. And then we got to work for a few hours afterward. TOday is P day and we finally got to clean the house :D and we get to buy more food. Also we have a few other things we want to look for, and we decided yesterday we are going to eat PIZZA! (you can't imagine how excited we are to eat Pizza)

I love the days that we get to work in the area all day, and I love being a missionary. I am glad that our days aren't all the same, I really do like changes, and the healthcare thing has been changes. THe missionaries are pretty healthy right now, a few colds, and some bad food, but nothing really severe this week. My phone has been pretty quiet, which is nice because we didn't really have very much time to work on anything healthcare in the AMs this week.

I am loving learning so much about the gospel. The mission really has helped me see that there really is not grey, either we are putting God first in our lives, and being exactly obedient to all the commandments, or He isn´t really our first priority. And when we say things like, I don't have time to go to church or read my scriptures, we are really saying, I don't have time to dedicate to God. We are showing our lack of faith that he is all powerful, and we are failing our test here on the earth. 'And we will prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them` Abr 3:25.

I love the quote from last conference by Elder Christofferson, he said, 'True success in this life comes in consecrating our lives—that is, our time and choices—to God’s purposes. In so doing, we permit Him to raise us to our highest destiny.' That is what we are all to do, to be obedient we have to choose to use our time in this life to what he wants us to do. And there we will have success.

SOmeone sent Hna woods a poem By Longfellow, that is really great,

TELL me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream!—
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.

Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each to-morrow
Find us farther than to-day.

Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.

In the world's broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
Be a hero in the strife!

Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant!
Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act,—act in the living Present!
Heart within, and God o'erhead!

Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time;

Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o'er life's solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.

I liked it a lot.
My time is up, Love y'all,
Hna Allen

Hola familia!

2011-07-01T15:33:00.000-06:00

This will be short as I don't have much time, we recieved a call from an hermana this morning who was having severe abdominal pain, we did our telephone assessment, and consulted the AMA and we wound up heading to San Salvador to the hospital and turns out she had appendicitis and needed an appy, so we just got back from San Salvador and have a few minutes to write. Things are going well, president Cordon is very nice, and he has a great vision for the mission. We've found a few families that are promising, and we're already seeing miracles from those few VIPs who were able to go the the open house before the official starting day(today). We're hoping to bring a family to the open house on next wednesday.
We still have to go shopping and get food for the week, and we have a cita with an investigator at 530 and supposably correlation at 5(we'll see he's always late) so sorry about how short this was. Hopefully next week will be an almost normal pday.
Love ya'll
Hna Allen

Surprise!

2011-06-23T11:49:00.000-06:00

SURPRISE! I am writing on thursday this week! Tomorrow we have our last multizona with Presidente Lopez. So today is our p-day. This week has flown by, I feel like I only wrote yesterday. Again this week has been filled with Health care phone calls. I seem to be on a run of Dentistry. It could be worse, it could be a run of apendicitis. But I am going to put the 6th appointment for one of our missionaries to see the dentist( so far, we've had crowns that need replaced, several severe tooth pains, and a few crumbling fillings) It is good that I am friends with the dentist. :D

We work hard every day, and I love the people here in Modelo. They have such a great love for the missionaries and the obra misionàl. We are working on getting references and we have recieved quite a few, but so far nothing really really positive, we're still opening up our little area, though we did find an area that we both thought, we should knock doors here. It is to bad that our week has been filled with citas, because we haven't been able to do it.
The language still is difficult at times, but more than not I manage to communicate my thoughts, and feelings in spanish. I am working on being patient with myself, I want everyone to understand me, but I understand that it is a process that takes time, they'll understand me, but I have to work on my language study and my pronounciation every day. I miss a latin comp a bit, it really helps you to expand you vocab if you can't just say the word in English.
This next week promises to be even more busy than this week, we have our day in the office monday, finally, because we really need to organize the nursing things before president Cordon gets here, then tuesday will be the 2nd meeting with the new people, and then wed our district meeting and then Thursday will be our first meeting with president Cordon. then friday will be p-day. Yup it promises to fly by I can already tell.

Hey so we've had this idea to do FHEs with our investigators and Menos activos and cook 'comida typica' (typical food) from the states(you know two gringas together it doesn't make sense to make baliaras (a honduranian food)...) but we've realized that we cook with recipes in the states. We can't do anything that requires a whole lot of time, and most people don't have an oven, only a stove top, but I'd apreciate any ideas about what we can make, and with those ideas, if you could send me the recipe too :D thanks
Mom these are the ideas I've had, Navajo tacos, and if they have an oven buiscuits or brownies, and we have an oven in our office AND in our chapel where we meet weekly and we'd love to make cookies so if you could send me recipes for these things (chocolate chips and peanut butter are dificult to find here, but I think I've seen most other things) I'd love it. I'm so excited to try this.
SO we have so much to do, but I am so excited to know that I have another niece :) and if you can I'd love to see some pics.
Love ya
Hermana Allen

Greetings from Modelo

2011-06-17T12:30:00.000-06:00

Sooo, I had changes last wednesday and I was in colon with Hna Hernandez for 3 days, then on friday night one of the APs called me and told me that I was having emergency changes and that I was going to modelo, modelo to be with Hna Woods as the other nurse. Early sat am they picked me up and dropped off Hna wood's comp but because they are the office zona modelo has their pday on fridays, so I am back to pdays on friday. SURPRISE!!
It was great to read about the birthday party for mom, and all that is going on at home.
We`re opening up a new area here, Modelo 2. And all of our investigators are people we've found or people that are references, Modelo 1 kept all of their investigadores even the ones that live in our area(modelo is the ward, and we have 2 sets of missionaries in the ward), but we're working with the bishop and the ward members to get references, and we're also going through the old investigator sheets from the area book to visit them, also we're working a lot with menos activos.
We live in a really big house(especially for only 4 people) it has 5 bathrooms and 4 sleeping quarters one of which(bedroom and bathroom) is separated from the rest of the main house and is above the second garage. I asked why we have such a huge house, and aparently there are a few good reasons, 1 it is in a safe area for us to be coming back in at night, 2 it isn't any more expensive than other smaller houses, and 3 we get to be the storage for all the things that were in the old office, but they don't have a place for in the new office.
But the house is still huge.
THis past week has been interesting, I got a phone on monday, so that the missionaries in my area can reach me, then we had a training meeting on tuesday, where president anounced that Hna woods would be over the Santa Ana zones( there are 5 of them) then on wednesday we went to Sonsacate to the other part of the areas(my 4 zones) and anounced to them as well that they need to call me with their health issues, then we went to San Salvador, and got things so Hna Woods can take out ingrown toenails, and we looked for an otoscope, that wouldn't cost an arm and a leg. Then, even though we went to San Salvador, we got to work hard for 2 hours in our area, thursday we had our district meeting, and then we got to work in our area again, and now it is friday, yeay Pday!
Well thats been my adventure from the last week and a half, Love y´all and its great to hear what is happening in everybody's lives.
Love ya
Hna Allen

Nueva Dirección

2011-06-17T11:48:00.000-06:00

OK the office officially moved, and here is the new address for all (snail) mail. :)

Aquí está la nueva dirección de la misión. Por favor, mándenlo a sus familias.

Misión El Salvador Santa Ana/Belice
Edificio de la Iglesia de Jesucristo SUD
Carretera a Candelaria de la Frontera y Autopista a
San Salvador, Frente a Col. Mendez, Ctn. Portezuelo
Apartado Postal #142
Santa Ana, El Salvador, C.A.

Changes this wednesday!

2011-06-06T11:58:00.000-06:00

Hola familia!
Things in the mission are hopping, we had a baptisms on Sunday before church and then he got confirmed in sacrament meeting. :) We have a baptism and wedding tomorrow. Then on wednesday we have changes, we`re closing out candelaria and there`ll be Elders there again. They want to send Elders to Pajonal, and the houses are to close together to have Elders and Hermanas in the same ward. (they are right next to each other behind the same wall.) SO Candelaria will be opened up again(in the states I think they call it White washing, but here they call it closing and opening an area.) by Elders, I'm told it will be Elder Perez and Elder Fox. Elder Perez was my District leader in Las Palmeras. He'll be awesome in Candelaria.
So I'm being sent to Barrio Colon (its part of Santa Ana) and My future comp will be Hna Hernandez. I'm excited to have the opportunity to work with her. She has interesting luck, however so this next change could be quite the adventure. Last change she was in 3 areas. The first they transfered her out of the thursday after changes. (her comp is a green gringa and she said she didn't know why) then they were in another area, and had emergency transfers after a rather interesting experience involving an angry man and a rock, and now she's in Colon. she has a year in the mission and has been in like 15 areas. (thats a lot if you do the math 6 weeks per change).
We had un hombre come to church yesterday who had recieved the lessons from Hna Clark, and is really positive, I didn't get the chance to talk with him much other than to arrange to call him tuesday to find out what day he'll be home so we can teach him. I hope the Elders can find his house(I didn't understand the directions he gave, and aparently neither did Hna Fuentes). Obispo was talking to him after the meetings and said 'you've got another investigador with a date' when I walked up to talk to them.
We had a meeting about the Temple! The Open house for the El Salvador Temple is July 1 through July 23 and Paraiso stake will be going to the open house every friday and tuesday AND the missionaries get to go too!!!(a big deal because the temple won't be in our mission in July). They`ll have 2 buses for every ward, and they hope to have them filled. : )
Mom don't worry about sending me OFF or DEET I have both, and the mosquitos still eat me.
I hope you have a happy birthday and Happy Birthday to all you June Birthdays :)
I need to go, love ya,
Hna Memorie Allen

Week 6-candelaria

2011-05-30T12:16:00.000-06:00

Hola familia,
Por fin(kind of like finally) the birth certificate for our investigator arrive so they'll be able to get married on the 7th of june :). We were hoping for the 31st of this month, but He has something wrong with his kidneys and has a doctors appointment for that day(from what I understand it is recurrent kidney stones but I'm not really sure if I understood right) BUT other good news his future wife was finally able to come to church for all of church so that is one attendance and she came again yesterday after she got off work(which means she came for Relief Society), and she'll be able to be baptized with him. :D Also we have another young woman, who wants to be baptized and she has permisson from her mom, but she wants the support of her dad. She's going to visit him this weekend so we're hopeful that she'll be baptized the same day as our other two on the 7th. BUT to complicate matters, our chapel is going to be expanded and yesterday was the last meeting we had in the chapel, this next sunday we'll be meeting in a really big house. But we won't have a baptismal font, so for our baptisms we'll have to use the font in Paraíso (about 45 min from candelaria) but they are alright with that. We have another investigator who is positive, but he only has one time coming to church I'm hopeful that he'll be baptized too.
We spent (a lot of time) yesterday talking to the wife of the bishop and to the relief society president to help us figure out how we can strengthen the ward here. We have come to the conclusion that the ward lacks love one for another, but I'm not sure how to help them learn to love one another. Any ideas? all we can think of is being examples.

It is hard to believe that we only have one more week left for this change, Next monday I'll know where will be my next 6 weeks and who my companion will be. The other area further up in the mountains (Pajonal) will be opened up this next change is what we've been told, so there'll be 2 companionships living on the property.
The rainy season has started. so far It rains a little off and on in the afternoon and then about 8pm it starts to pour and it pours until after we go to bed. The crops are growing, and they are planting other things here(old style, with a stick and a bag of seed) I am honestly not sure what they grow. But the cows and horses are starting to look more healthy now that there is plenty of grass in their fields. It is humid, which means it takes my clothes 2 days to dry. and even then they always feel a little damp. Also there are some really big bugs that apparently accompany the rainy season(ugly critters) and flys...

I found a store that sells bug spray(OFF). It is a good thing that we get reimbursed for it or I couldn't afford it. Its almost 6 bucks for a can about as tall as my hand. It lasts about 2 weeks. I still get bit, but not as bad as the first week when I was using a different type of spray. And I'm using the dryersheets that Hna Strong left me. I think they help. My legs are healing and I don't see to many new bites ;)
I think thats about it, I love you all,
Love Hermana Allen

Week 5 change 2

2011-05-23T17:07:00.001-06:00

Greetings from Santa Ana!

Today has been an interesting day, and a long one at that. We woke up at 4 this morning to get ready so we could catch the bus at 5:00, we were out and waiting for the bus and it finally passed at 5:30- oh wait really this day started last night when our zone leaders called and said all of the Hermanas were going to San Salvador for P-day, and that we had to meet president at a certain place in San Salvador at 9. It was cheaper and faster to take the last ´direct´bus to San Salvador (as opposed to one that would take us to Santa Ana, and then we'd take another one to get to a popular bus stop-called the saber- and then another to this place) so we took this bus, and got off in the saber at about 815 and then waited for another and took that to where the elders told us to go, then walked back to where we were meeting the APs(abt 9), and realized two things, 1 that the last bus wasn´t necessary because all the busses passed this point and 2 there were two 'Q' places and that we hoped we were at the right one. We were about to head to the other one when the APs showed up at 930. gee sometimes I wish I had a car(an then I'm glad i don't because I don't want to drive here) We played futbal all of the Hnas in the mission except the 4 in Belice, and then we went to president's home where we ate lunch and president told us which Hnas are going to Belice this next change. Its not me. : ) more time to work on my Spanish, but it is Hna Clark, and Hna Woods is burned out so they asked me to prepare myself to me the next mission health care specialist. (they also call it mission nurse, but you don't have to have a nursing license or even have the education to be the nurse for a while in one of the missions the mission nurse was an elder who had 4 years of med school, but hadn't graduated yet, and in another mission they had one who was a health science major, and had worked in a lab for all of her school. It just means that you are the mediator between the missionaries and the president and the area medical advisor.) They said that Hna Clark will be in charge of Belice, and that we'll split El Salvador for a while while I transition into having the full burden of all of the missionaries here in El Salvador. And that that will start next change. Who knows where I'll be, its possible I'll stay in Candelaria, because the mission office will be in this stake. But I might move into Santa Ana, we'll see in another 2 Sundays.

SO now we're here in Santa Ana again writing, we still haven't bought groceries, but I don't really need any, although I do need to pull out money for the next week. The work is good, although difficult, and every day really is an adventure. We were hoping to have FHE with one of the recent convert families tonight, but it doesn't look like that will happen as it is 5 now and it is an hour to Candelaria and the area where this family lives is one of the areas we don't go after dark.
It is always good to hear from you, and I'm hoping for a response from Jake and Zac any day. (HINT HINT WRITE ME!!!! little brothers!)

Its fun to hear that you are working your way though 2 Ne, thats where I am-in Spanish- you think Isaiah is hard to understand in English.... ;)

Love you all, and you are in my prayers always
Hna Allen

Map

2011-05-16T13:44:00.000-06:00

Hey so I was working on a map of my area and thought I'd send you a link, so you can see (kinda) what candelaria looks like :) it goes all the way out to El Jute and we've been up to Santiago de la Frontera, but only once that used to be another area and they had some investigators there, but we've had to drop them because it was to far. and it also goes out to (i think) La Arenera.
Love ya!

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=es&q=El+Salvador&aq=&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=51.621706,113.994141&ie=UTF8&geocode=FYl70gAd7ouz-g&split=0&hq=&hnear=El+Salvador&ll=14.112765,-89.650455&spn=0.003886,0.006958&t=h&z=18>

aaaand its monday again

2011-05-16T13:27:00.001-06:00

Hola family!

Its been great to hear from you all, Everytime I read your emails Bryce and Anita I think, wow, all around the world the mission work really is the same, drunk, high people saying things they won't remember tomorrow and people who are great and progress and people who don't.

So we have been contacting a lot here, we worked our way up and down two streets yesterday, and as Candelaria is probably not that much bigger than Driggs we don't have that much of the town itself to contact. It gets difficult as there are areas that we aren't supposed to go after dark (its like half of the town and pretty much all of the outlying area) because it is dangerous, so we contact in those areas before dark and other areas after dark (with the theory that if they are there in the day when we talk with them we'll be able to come back the same time another day) not always a great theory, but its what we work with.

We have been struggling with our inactivos, there are a lot of them that live in the mountains and can't afford to come to church, (literally they can't afford the $0.35/person to bring them on the bus) and it is to far to walk for a lot of them, as well as it is a long way to the bus stop for some of the older members up in the mountains. We've made a plan though, the Elder's quarum president and one of our more recent converts are family of many of those that live up in the mountains and they said they'd head up this week and talk to them and if they get enough to say they'll come they can use a truck to go get them and bring them to the church(a couple of the members have trucks and they load the back full to go places like with mutual, they load all the youth in the back of the truck that has a canopy and then they drive to Santa Ana for practice for the cultural event for the temple dedication.)

But we've got some positive investigators, and we work hard everyday to build up the kingdom of god here in Candelaria.

Umm, the other day I say my first Tranchula. We were walking through town and this guy was crouched down with a thin stick in one hand(like a skewer for a bbq) and in the other a little bigger stick that was flat on the end. The one that was flat on the end he gently brought down in front of him and as we passed him I realized he had pinned the back of a tranchula with it and with the other stick he very carefully pushed it through the upper part of the tranchula and then he stood up, with a tranchula skewered on the end of a stick. I don't know what he was gong to do with it.

Querro ver, que mas....

Oh dogs, there are so many dogs here. Lucky for me they are almost all pretty easy going, and we're usually able to walk past them with hardly more than a bark, but every so often they don't like it when we walk past and then they growl and bark like hey this is my street(yes street we walk in the middle of the street and the dogs lay on the street and take exception to you walking on it). But the dogs here are really skinny. Most of the animals are really skinny, you can count their ribs. Also on another note, when I was in the CCM one of the Hnos said, please remember that if you drop something (like food) on the floor it isn't going to just disappear some one will have to clean it up after you. I understand why he would have to say that. Drop a crumb, and if there isn't a cat or dog nearby the ants.. oh the ants will take care of it in short order. The other day -this is kinda gross if you have a weak stomach stop reading- one of the cats threwup in front of our house(like on the sidewalk) but not to fear by the time I saw it it was black with ants, and by the time we came back that night, it was gone. If you don't mind the ants they really will clean up anything. Alright I guess they haven't taken a liking to plastic yet, which is a shame, they would have a wonderful feast (think the canals in Egypt mom and that is what the river near our house looks like behind the log dams they have across the river)

Oh more adventure: the bus: you never know what you'll see on the bus.. a lady with a parrot, a guy with 5(yes 5) chickens live ones with their legs bound together...a box of chicks, a huacab of plants, and then there are the people who make a living by selling fruit on the bus. They get on at one stop and walk from the front to the back (usually once is all they manage with the crowd) and tell you what they are selling, watermelon, melon, cucumber, mango, papaya, etc all cut up and put into plastic baggies. Haven't tried any yet though they look good, maybe oneday when I feel like risking being sick.
I need to go, Love you all
Hna Allen

¡Puchica! una otra semana!

2011-05-09T11:36:00.002-06:00

Holy cow (that's what puchica means, holy cow, oh my gosh, wow) another week has flown by. Yesterday was mothers day in the states(you all know) and tomorrow is mothers day here in El Salvador. Its been hot here this week. Even the natives are sweating. It gets really hot and then the wind starts to blow :) and then it blows in the rain clouds, but it is really hot and still right before that happens. And its been hot and still for about 3 days now. It doesn't cool down much at night.

Mom! I got your package last Wednesday. Thanks so much. It was so great to talk to you yesterday and sorry that we got cut off (Zac and mom) the service here is interesting it just drops calls all the time(apparently that's what they told me when I told them that the call dropped.) I do have socks now thanks! But the socks don't stop the mosquitoes from biting my legs.
So a little bit about the culture: first there are a lot of motorbikes up in Candelaria and a fair number of trucks though they are all 2 wd They put metal frames around the bed and then they're like the bus but cheaper(we missionaries aren't allowed to ride in them) and they take people from place to place, and you pay the guy who stands in the back like a dime or something. Another interesting transportation option is a mototaxi its like a scooter with 3 wheels(imagine a scooter, now imagine that the back tire is two tires with a seat above the axle,) they pack like 6 people on those things and go all over. They are anywhere from 25 cents to $1 depending on where you want to go.

Pilas... (mom we started to talk about these but then the call dropped.) Imagine a concrete slab about 5' by 3', then imagine this slab is a concrete block about waist high with three basins, a big one in the middle (about a foot and a half deep) and then one on either side. This is their sink. They do everything here, food preparation, wash dishes, wash laundry, wash children... everything involving water(if you'r lucky your toilet has its own water supply if not grab a huacab(like a plastic basin) and fill it out of the pila(the water that they run into the middle basin when they have water) and dump it in the toilet bowl fast and the toilet 'flushes'.) The pilas are usually outside, but not very far from the house, and if you really want to get technical most of the houses are outside because they are just a roof with two or three walls to give a little privacy. with a fence around the back yard/garden/trees. No there isn't really to much wildlife around these pilas(1 because any animal of significant size has been either killed and eaten or scared away by the dogs, and 2 because these pilas are almost always being used) The poorer people don't have pilas in their houses or in their yards, they take their laundry to a shed looking thing that is a series of pilas and they all wash their clothes together, and they also haul the water to their houses in these plastic jugs that remind me of the clay pots you see in the scripture movies. And they carry any thing that is heavy on their heads. Balanced there so they can hang onto their child with one hand and stabilize the load with the other.

The work, we're waiting for a birth certificate still for one of our investigators to be able to get married to he can get baptized. And we're working with quite a few others that we're hopeful that they'll get baptised this change.

We're also working on finding those that don't come to church. Our 'simi'-I don't know what that stands for- is probably half an inch thick. That's the list of all the members of the church, and since we have an average attendance of about 100 people there are a lot of people who just don't come. We arranged with one of the members to help us, he is family with about half of them. He said that there are really 3 big families that are members of the church(and menos activo) the family of his wife, his family and then this other family that doesn't have anyone active. We're going to the 'mountains' on Tuesday to find them.

The Spanish is coming along. I have days that go really well, I talk a lot and people understand me, and then I have days that I talk and people look at my companion and say 'what did she say?' And miraculously most of the time my companion 1understood what I said and 2 tells them what I said, and I feel like she says exactly what I said, but then they understand.

I've been reading Jesus The Christ while I eat breakfast and I have been learning a lot. This morning while I was washing my clothes(about as mentally involved an activity as moving pipe) I was thinking about the parable of the virgins(which I had just read about in Jesus the Christ) and I was thinking about The symbolism of these women who are waiting for the bridegroom. They have learned that the savior is coming, but they don't know when and the wise ones had oil in their lamps and some to fill the lamps up again but the foolish ones only had the oil that was in the lamps. We all are one or the other. We have our lamps and we have oil (the gospel and testimonies) but some of us have assumed that having had a testimony at one point will suffice, with out realizing that as we wait for the savior to come our lamps are burning. We have to be building our testimony. The oil is burning whether we are working on growing in the gospel or not, and if we aren't working on being better, and building our testimony through study, prayer, and meditating on what we've learned, we won't be prepared to greet the bridegroom, but will be frantically trying to find oil.

I was thinking about some of the less actives that I've talked to here. There was one man, who had been baptized in the 80s he had been active in the church, serving, but he didn't see the importance of studying and learning more about the gospel everyday, and he reached a point that he justified not going to church, I have to work, I am to tired, I _______, until he started to doubt what he had once known. His lamp started to sputter and he had no oil to put into the lamp, and his testimony, which had been a strong vibrant flame, became a smoldering wick, that needed care and attention. Wow that was long and I hope it made sense.

My time on the computer is about finished. Love you all, Love Hna Allen

PS:
I realized I didn't answer your questions, mom.
Do you feel safe? Someone asked me, I realized you've never mentioned it. (Compare it to Egypt.) Well we are instructed to be in our apartment everynight at 8 pm. (just the Hnas the Elders are out til 9) and as far as compared to Egypt I feel safer, but I think part of that is that I know I'm on the lord's errand. I know that as I am obedient to his commandments (the commandments of the church and the rules of the mission) that he'll bless me and I'll be protected. I couldn't ask for a better security guard than the Lord.

Do you have instructions for in case of emergency here's the signal, do this? Some foreign missions have that. We have an emergency plan, but as for a signal, no. As part of our instructions we are asked to keep enough cash in our apartments to be able to pay for a taxi to the mission office. that ranges from area to area from about $7 to $70.

Do you have 72 hour kits in your apt? We have what are called emergency backpacks that we are given on our first day in the mission with medications(benadryl, tylenol, advil etc) and bandages with instructions to buy specific foods to add to the backpack. I have mine, but not everyone was obedient and has theirs.

Do you have electricity in your new rural place? How about running water. I caught that you are doing laundry by hand, how about the rest of it? Refrigeration? Yes, yes, yes. One of the safety guidelines for the housing is that they have electricity and a light outside. Our water hasn't gone out yet and yes we have running water.

What are you eating? We have lunch with a member of the ward who we pay to cook for us, so usually we eat pretty traditional El Salvadoranian foods, Sopa de frijoles(bean soup its like kidney beans and chicken broth with a drumstick and veggies like carrots, potatoes and a green veggie with about the texture of a potatoe, but it doesn't taste like a potatoe, or any type of squash I've ever eaten.) Frijoles(beans pureed), rice with some carrots usually, and tortillas always, but not tortillas like you eat there. They are corn maiz and water, formed into a disk, and then cooked on a griddle, they are usually between the size of the palm of your hand and the full hand with fingers extended. usually about the first knuckle of the hand if you were to put them on the open hand. Also Cheese, but again not like any cheese I've eaten before its sharp, white and has a pretty distinct flavor.

Housing the same in your rural Candelaria? The house here is in some ways nicer than the one in Santa Tecla and in many ways not. It is pretty though

Love to hear, flora & fauna? There are trees of every kind of fruit, and I've eaten quite a few fruits that I've never tried before. Some are good, others not so much. Everything is green and lush, Words are really inadequate for this topic. Truly.
Love ya Hna Allen

Greetings from Candelaria

2011-05-02T12:46:00.000-06:00

Hola familia,
Here I am in Candelaria(actually I'm in Santa Ana right now to write but my area is Candelaria) Candelaria de La Frontera is where we live and it is really a huge area, even bigger because we don't have bikes or cars and buses are pretty scetchy. (sometimes they come by and sometimes not) We had a baptism of a 13 year old last friday and he was confirmed on sunday. He lives with his aunt and grandma who are ´menonita` that means they wear hand made dresses all the time and the aunt wears a white head scarf over her hair and their hair is always braided and up. I haven't really noticed any other differences. He has a whole ton of family that are members but the ones that live in candelaria are inactive. He was baptised by his uncle who is active and lives in Chalchuapa.
We also have a date for another investigator. He's been coming to church for 3 months now and finally all the papers are in order, almost. We are waiting for his birth certificate which has to come through the pouch from the other mission, we are planning that it'll come this wednesday (the zone leaders go to the office on tuesday and get the stuff that comes in pouch and we'll get it at district/zone meeting on wed)
If that comes we'll have a wedding and a baptism this weekend. His future spouse is positive but she hasn't been able to get work off yet, so she hasn't come to church. We're praying that she'll be able to find other work. She's been looking but hasn't been able to find anything.
ON another note-I'M BEING EATEN ALIVE!!!! The mosquitos are so thick. I have dryer sheets, which is a little helpful and a miracle becuase they don't sell them here(the NA Hermana before me went to Belize and left them for me :) ) and I put on off every 4 hours and my legs still look like I have chicken pox or something. Ah they itch.
Anybody have any ideas about how to not be bit?
I did laundry today... by hand. It probably wouldn't have been so bad if I hadn't just switched from having pday on friday to mondays so I had a week and a half of laundry and now it is hung up all over the property. Its a good thing my comp and I are the only ones that live there.
Its really hot up in the mountains(where Candelaria is) but it rained last evening/night which meant that for the afternoon and evening it was refreshingly cool.
Candelaria is very rural and everytime we walk through the pastures and fields to get to another persons house and I see the cows and step over the pies I am reminded of home.
We are working hard and communication is interesting because my spanish is leaps and bounds better than my comp's english. But we manage. I think I am here to help her develop patience. Some times she'll say something and I don't catch it and I ask her to say it again so she does but she raises her voice too. Its funny but I didn't realize that when you speak louder you slow down. More than anything it is that she slows down when she repeats it that helps me. Not because I didn't hear it, but because she said it so fast I didn't understand. I do get a little frustrated at not understanding but all I can do it laugh. Especially when we're somewhere and someone starts talking to us and I focus so hard so that I can understand that they start talking to me(then I'm in trouble becaus they ask me the questions and I have to go ´ummm...¨ (look at hna fuentes) and she answers) and I laugh inside.
I still need to go find OFF because the little store(owned by walmart) in candelaria didn't have any.

Love you all and its been good to hear from you all.

Hola Familia!

2011-04-22T10:01:00.001-06:00

It is great to hear from y'all. Things are going great here, a little more difficult because it is semana santa. it is a huge festival here and for the first time since I came shops are closed. They don't close on sundays but they close for semana santa. The cyber is open only for us today. very nice of them, so we're writing a lot earlier than normal. Cambios are this coming wednesday, and president lopez said that we'll have some missionaries from este with those of us from oeste for the transition of the area, Hna woods is going to santa ana and we're pretty sure Hna Clark is too. This morning some of the Elders from mission este brought mattresses for their missionaries and they told us there will be 4 missionaries coming so we aren't sure if we'll even be here for another full cambio or if we'll just introduce them to the area, the investigators and then go to another area in our mission. We had a multizona on monday and president said that as part of the transition we'll be together for at least one week. We're on the edge of our seats to figure out what will happen. The multizona on monday was awesome. We watched a talk that Elder Holland gave in the MTC in provo the day before I reported. I had watched it in english in the CCM but it was great in spanish too. He talks about how the mission changed his life and how our savior calls us to be fishers of men not just for 2 years but for our entire lives. It is so powerful. I don't know if there is a place that you can watch it, but wow.
Mom I got your letter pouch on mon. thanks :D I love getting mail. Still no sign of the package though. Oh and don't worry about Peanut Butter. I found some. XD
I was reading a liahona the other day and came across a great scripture and quote. IN the liahona(& ensign)from March 2010 there is an article called Safe in his hands and it says,"In any of the difficulties that lie ahead of us, as individuals and as a people, the Lord’s voice should echo in our hearts: “Fear not, little children, for you are mine, and I have overcome the world, and you are of them that my Father hath given me” (D&C 50:41)." I liked it a lot.
So Because of semana santa we aren't going to have a wedding and baptism this weekend. We have plans for monday. We need one more piece for the wedding, a copy of this thing called a DUI(doo'ee) the photo identification here and Hno Mauricio's expired last week and he went to get a new one this week but the office was closed until monday. But we have a couple of other investigators that have been off and on investigators. Mostly becasue they work a lot so we could get in touch with them, but they have been coming to church most weeks. One said she'd get baptized, but she wants her boyfriend to baptize her so we are waiting for her to tell us when he can.
The work is hard, but great, and I am so greatful for the opportunity to be here. I am amazed everyday of the ways that the lord shapes us to be what he needs, and the person he is shaping me to be.
I probably wont' have pday on friday next week, it will probably be a little more than a week until my next pday. (monday after next)
Love you all
Love Hna Allen

Another week has flown by

2011-04-15T13:23:00.000-06:00

Wow another week, its friday already, I feel like I just wrote yesterday. We start semana 6 on this next monday, wow this cambio has really flown by. We found an abogado that will marry our investigators without needing a certificate de nacimiento, apparently it is a personal preference, so on the 23rd we're going to have a wedding and a baptism. :D We might get to have 2 people be baptized because we can't find the Hna's records. She's supposed to be looking for her cerificate of bautismal, but if not she'll be baptized with her husband. We were a bit concerned that she'd be offended, but she just laughed and accepted it.
We have a few other investigators that are positive, but are progressing slowly and have many difficulties. We hope to see one investigator in particular at church this sun. He came once before, but we'd only taught him once and he just showed up and we didn't know he was there and he left before we could get to him and talk to him after church(you always talk to new faces). It wasn't a very good experience for him, no one talked to him, that was the sunday of ward conference so there was a lot of vocab and phrases that he didn't understand, and he didn't get the raising the arm thing. Anyway we introduced a powerful new convert to him (actually they already knew each other from their wild drinking days, and Hno Luiz joked that instead of talking about spilt beer now the'd talk about the gospel.) Hno Luiz is an interesting story by inteslf. He'd been attending church for 7 years, and his entire family was members, but he had never been bapized. The entire ward thought he was already a member, so when he got baptized this Jan they didn't understand why. Anyway Hna Woods has had an interesting week(and therefore me as well) we had an Elder with appendicitis, several more with amoebas that don't die with the regular treatments, so the treatment was changed, and a couple of Elders with emotional issues. One who they brought in to be the comp of the post op Elder who has to stay in San Salvador until at least next Mon, so they get to chill in the Office until then. So we went to San Salvador 3 times this past week and we're going again today. Also a big step aparently President told her that she'll be going to Santa Ana this next change. And that it will be what we thought originally, one of the missionaries from the other mission and one of the missionaries from our mission will be companions for one change in all the areas that we are turning over to the other mission. In July my mission changes to the El Salvador Santa Ana/Belice mission, and the mission office and presidents home will be in Santa Ana. As part of that we are turning over All of San Salvador that our mission is in as well as Santa Techla and probably all of La Libertad Stake but I am not sure. Anyway next change it'll eiher be me or Hna Clark here in Las Palmeras 1 and since Hna Clark will probably be the next enfermera and Hna Woods has been the Enfirmera for more than half of her mission it will probably be me that stays and orients the other mission to Las Palmeras 1.
So I've learned a lot here, and one of the things that Hna Woods keeps telling me is that the lord doesn't call us to do things unless he knows we can do it. As I think about how lost I get here in my area at times I think, alright, If I am not capable of doing it, I won't be asked to do it. All I have to do is rememer that the lord doesn't ask about my capabilty, but rather my availability, and as I demonstrate my dependability the lord will strengthen my capability to do what he asks. She tells me about when she was made Sr companion on her 2nd change and was asked to train at the same time as she had been the enfermera for one change. She said she couldn't remember anyone and she didn't feel like she knew the area but as she worked on it she was able to do it, because the lord increased her capabiliy.
The language is coming, I undersand more and more every day, and I feel more and more comfortable talking everyday as well.
My time is up but I love you all, Thank you so much for your support!

Greetings once again from Santa Tecla!

2011-04-08T14:39:00.001-06:00

Hola y'all!
It is so good to hear from you. Mom, I'm honestly not sure how pouch works, all I know is that every monday the office elders get a manila envelope with dear elders and pouch mail. Which my lucky 2 comps get to sort while I sit in the room with Hna Woods while she charts the incidents from the week. Missionary health is interesting, We had one elder this past week who had had amoebas(supposedly the most common cause of recurrent diarrhea here) its called entamoeba histalytica and the treatment is 2 sets of pills the first is 3 days of 2000mg and the 2nd is 3 days of 500mg of a different med. The first is supposed to kill the amoebas and the 2nd the kesaise (kinda like eggs) and then you're done but it is way rough on the liver and so you can't have the treatment any more often than every three months, so if you get amoebas again your out of luck. But this Elder took the pills, finished and called the day after saying he didn't ever feel better, and hna woods told him sometimes it takes a bit of time, and so he waited for another week and called and said, I still have diarrhea, I'm loosing weight really bad and i feel really week, he had another test and it was still positive for amoebas. But the problem is we don't know if he got a bad round of the first meds the first time or what, so Dr. MacArthur said to start him on flagyll and hope that helps. Poor elder. We Talked to another this morning that sounds like a torn rotator cuff. P-day is dangerous. So many missionaries get hurt on P-day.

Anyway for this week we went to the office 2x(normally only once but we wanted to see this Hna who thinks she broke her foot, she didn't come, and Hna Woods was like, I'm not going to say have an xray until I see this foot) we also spend an evening taking an Elder with an unexplained fever(39 Celsius) for 1 week, that didn't respond to abx, to an internalist. The first time we've used this doctor so Hna Woods went with him and I sat in the waiting room.
We also had our district meeting in La Puerta this week, so I got to see the ocean as we drove past it in the bus, and the white sand too. That was exciting, but it is really hot down there.

Anyway so we spent a lot of time traveling this week, but our family that need to get married almost have all the paperwork they need. This morning we had an awesome lesson with just the parents, and we brought a member who had had troubles overcoming an alcohol addiction as well, and he was like, I know it can be hard, but my door is always open, any time you need support or someone to talk to, come on down to my house.He also said to remember that we don't make covenants with the missionaries, the bishop etc, we make covenants with God. He was so powerful, I wish every recent convert (actually every member) was as great of a member missionary as him.

The other Hnas have a family that came to conference :) He actually quit his job so he could come, he said, I know that god wants me in Church, so I'll go and trust that he'll help me find another job. :) what faith! He has to get divorced, before he can get married to the woman he's living with now, so we probably won't be able to baptize him this change, but we're trusting in and seeing so many miracles. This Hno has read the Book of Mormon 2 times before we found him and he has such a strong testimony of the gospel! Thank you those who came before who planted seeds for us.

They also have been teaching an Hna who´s the sister of the Hno who came with us to teach this morning. She also came to conference and was so excited about it, She worked late yesterday and so they didn't get to teach her again this week, but we're hopeful that she'll be at church this sun and that she'll accept a baptismal date, She has a testimony of the living prophet so :).
We also taught a wonderful woman who we had put in the investigatores antiguos section of the area book, but we felt prompted to visit her yesterday and she said she'd come to church this Sunday She says she knows the BOM is the word of god, and that Joseph Smith was a prophet, but i think she's been having trouble leaving her other church because of her friends there. Even though she has LDS friends.

SO this week really has flown by, we've worked hard and we are always finding new people, the unfortunate part for us is that many of them don't actually live in our area so we are always giving references to other groups of missionaries. We always pray that they'll go and find them, or call them or what not. We have talked to 3 other people in the last week who have read the BOM, and believe it, one of them came to conference, but he says the missionaries haven't come to his house yet or called (he works in front of our house so we see him every other day).

Mormon.org isn't really translated into spanish yet so we don't do much with it, Anita, besides that most of the people we talk to don't have internet access.
Bryce Your description reminded me of so many of the pasages (knid of like sidewalks, but there isn't a road, its just the path between the houses) in a few of the colonias.
My time is about over, Love Y'all and hope to hear what is going on in your lives ;)
Love Hermana Allen

Hola y'all

2011-04-01T13:29:00.000-06:00

Greetings from El Salvador (otra vez) I got pouch mail from Mom, Jake and Bryce on monday thanks!
It was good to hear from you and it was fun to read Anita's email as well, though I'm pretty sure I missed something (like why she was in the mtc for so long)
Ok mom:
What is your favorite scripture you would like to have on your missionary plaque.My favorite scripture right now is either Moses 6:32 And the Lord said unto Enoch: Go forth and do as I have commanded thee, and no man shall pierce thee. Open thy mouth, and it shall be filled, and I will give thee utterance... or Moroni 8:16 ....Behold, I speak with boldness, having aauthority from God; and I fear not what man can do; for bperfect clove dcasteth out all fear.
Also I need a wallet size picture, got any ideas where to direct me to one you'd like? There is a pic on my blog that will probably work it is the one I sent in with my papers.

This week has been an interesting series of ups and downs. Our investigator had his interview for baptism, he had to have it with pres lopez because he is a former madero(gang member). down here all gang members have tattoos. People who aren't in a gang don't do tattoos, so you can tell be seeing if they have tattoos as long as they haven't been in the states. anyway all went well and we started planning a wedding!! and a baptism(this is the dad of the two boys who were baptized last week) plans for a wedding on the 8th of april and a baptism on the 9th, but i think that might change (Hna Sandra wants to change the day of the wedding to Sat so her mom and sister can come, sounds reasonable to me). (UP) day before yesterday a dear friend of the family passed away and yesterday hno turned back to the bottle for comfort(down) we've arranged for various members to help him( it seems like every newish member has 2 things in common 1 they all have to get married before they can be baptized, and 2 have to quit smoking or drinking).
We found several great nuevos, and taught them a couple of lessons, then went back and one was sick, one was busy, and one just wasn't there. so goes missionary work.
Our other half is teaching a family that the Hno has read the BOM 2 times and is working on a third, he has a testimony of the BOM, the big obstacles are 1 his work calls him in at any time and so far he has worked every sunday, and 2 his 'spouse' doesn't want to get married. They call each other spouse even if they aren't married, it makes it a bit difficult to figure out if they actually are married or have been together for long enough to just say that.
It has been hot here this week, even the el savadoranians say so, though their version of cold is less that 70 Fahrenheit. It has been in the 90s this week. Oh and I don't think I told you last week, our water has been working for the past week and half. its been great to take a shower (not pour water over yourself with a bowl.) and its even greater to be able to wash dishes in the sink. and not at the pila. And to be able to flush the toilets. :D what a blessing running water. Well i'm about out of time, hope to hear from you all, oh and Bryce and Anita, just cc me if you can. :D
Love y'all Hna Allen
PS my p-day is on friday this cambio in case you haven't noticed

hola ya'll

2011-03-25T14:32:00.003-06:00

Greetings from El Salvador! It has been a great week, on monday we learned we'd be getting a mini missionary, she is 18, and she'll only be here for maybe one transfer, but she is a great missionary. It means that Hna Clark is her companion and Hna Woods and I are a duo. It also means that we have 2 companionships in the same area. We are finding so many people. We started teaching the son of one of our member families, they've been being baptized one by one for about 2 years now, and its just him and his oldest brother. The oldest is way catholic, and I get the impression that he's feeling a lot of pressure from his family to choose a religion. It is such a miracle because they've been asking if he'd be willing to be taught and up until this week he's always said no.

We also have a baptism tomorrow. 2 nños. their dad isn't a member, but wants to get baptized, their mom was baptized when she was a little girl, and now is really enjoying coming back. We just have to get them married. witch is a little difficult because to get married here you have to have the birth certificates of your children, and one of their kids doesn't have one. we are hopeful for the 9th of abril, but no guarantees.

OK mom, I could print, but it costs me $.12 a page, so if its really long I could. Also no I haven't gotten your letters, but i'll check on mon when we're in the office again.

As for this question; "we want to know more about what it's like there, terrain, weather, food, people, dress, etc" the people here dress pretty much like anyone you'd meet in the states. I haven't seen to much like the guatemala style here. a lot of jeans and tshirts. it is kind of amusing though, because they have tshirts in english and don't have a clue what it says. it makes for some interesting shirt choices. Terrain. here it is hilly, everything is built on a slope, sometimes gradual, most of the time not. The houses are all made of cinderblock, and most of them have a type of plasticy glass windows, they remind me of the blinds on the windows where you twist the nob and the blinds open, twist them back and they close. The glass|plastic slats are about 5 inches wide and are like that, twist a nob open the window, twist a nob close the window. The houses are open to, air, and there are bars on all the windows. Most of the doors also have a metal frame with a plywood type door that you can close. Most of the time it is warm, i don't think it has been below 60 durring the day and 50 at night. also durring the day its usually around 75-80. The other day the sun was really powerful and I got burned, first time my arms got burned, I have an even darker tan line on my feet than in guatemala and it just gets darker every day. The food, oh its pretty good, I really like papusas, and fried platanos. also one of the ladies in the ward cooked us a banana drink, it was like drinking banana bread. She said it was banana, blended up, then heated up with some water, some cinnamon and whole pepper (like the balls) it was good.

The people are nice, I've only had one door slammed in my face and even that was like -open the door, shake head close door- not to bad really. even if they aren't intersted most of the time they are pretty nice. You do see people seeing you coming and crossing to the other side of the road though. I think the strangest thing for me to get used to is they want to have physical contact when you greet them, so with the women that you know, often times, they do this thing where they reach in and kiss the air by your cheek, that was a bit odd for me the first few times. When you meet or greet someone who knows you if their hands are dirty they'll offer their forearm, I asked my comp what you do, and she said, touch their forearm with your forearm, shake their forearm like its their hand or even sometimes touch their forearm with a fist.

I´m about out of time. Love ya'll

Hna Memorie Allen

OH i almost forgot:
one of the office elders jokingly told me that the speed of a package to get to the mission office depends on the number of Jesus stickers(like catholic Jesus) on the box, oh and as long as the green paper doesn't say anything wonderful, like sweets, it will get here alright. Hna clark got a package that said, bras, socks, and vitamins(ironically actually what was in it) and it got here fine without Jesus stickers. But I'd really love peanut butter next time you send a care package. Love ya!

Surprise!

2011-03-23T11:49:00.000-06:00

Hola! (from Santa Tecla, El Salvador)

2011-03-18T11:44:00.002-06:00

So here I am in El Salvador. I'm in an area called Santa Tecla. We have walked all over our area and it includes a whole bunch of little communities. Anyway, I am with a trio, i don't know if you heard that. they are both nurses as well. it is kind of fun Hna Woods is the nurse right now and in another 2 changes Hna Clark will be the nurse. So I get to see the workings of what are the responsibilities of a nurse. Also we have an hermana that lives with us who is also a nurse( she's latina so the education for that is a little different than ours) but she's way fun. She just says some of the funniest stuff like its alright to defrost your meat in the sink, but don't spit your toothpaste into the sink. we don't need those germs in the sink.

On another note, I am having quite the adventure, between the hours of 6am and 9 pm we don't have running water in the house. It makes for an interesting shower after exercise in the morning.(we run water into what is called a pila at night and then during the day we use that water to bathe with, wash our dishes and flush the toilets, you just have to fill up a bowl with water and take it where you need it, in the shower and use a bowl to pour water over you, to the toilet so you can flush it (the trick with that is pour it in fast enough that it'll flush, pour it in slow and it just trickles down), or bring your dishes to the backyard where the pila is to wash them.

It has been a pretty interesting week, we have a family that we're teaching and their two little boys are getting baptised this weekend, they have to get married before they can, but they said they'd start the paperwork. We have another woman who has a testimony of the church, she knows that the BOM is true that JS was a prophet and that Jesucristo speaks to the head of this church, but she doesn't understand why it is important to come to our church and not another. She said she'll come this sun.

Ok so i thought I should mention I have p-day on Friday for this cambio. its because I'm with the nurse and we're in the office on Mondays. Entonces, I am glad you got to read the little bit about my new mission pres. He is really nice and Pres Lopez is awesome. I love Hna Lopez and I'm sure I'll love Hna Cordon as well.

OK so if you send a package i know that there is an address on my blog, but Dani if you could if there needs to be things added to it will ya? They gave me this one with express directions to not send it through UPS, FEDEX or DHL because someone has to go to the airport to get them, but if you send it through USPS it will go to the mission office and then I can get it from there. the address is:

Misión El Salvador San Salvador Oeste| Belice

Bulevar Del Hipodromo #537

Colonia San Benito

Apartado Postal #367

San Salvador, El Salvador, C.A.

I'm having fun and what an adventure this is. Everyday brings its challenges and its highs and lows and the culture is so interesting to me. Here people sell everything on the street and deliver anything(they even deliver McDs I was told) And the busses, oh what an adventure, its as crazy or more than when we were in Egypt mom.

Love yall tons and I'll write again next Friday

Note from Dani: I did update the addresses on the side bar. They should all be correct now!

El Salvador

2011-03-15T13:00:00.000-06:00

Hi family

I am in EL Salvador now and all is good, we had papusas last night, and they were very very yummy, I don´t have much time to write but I'm here safe, I´m assigned to be comps with the mission nurse, there are two here right now so Ill be in a trio still, officially tomorrow. Love you tons, Mem

Hola ya'll, week 5

2011-03-09T10:02:00.002-07:00

Greetings from Guatemala for the last week. Monday we head to our missions and I am so excited. I have to focus pretty hard still to understand a lot of people but I am thinking it is becoming a vocabulary issue rather than I just don´t catch the accent. It is good to read your emails and hear how things are going back home. I'm glad you got the quetzals mom I thought they were pretty cool too. it is so weird to me that Q8=$1. So this week was great. I think I told you last week that I´ll get a new mission president in July, President Cordon. When he becomes my president my mission name changes to El Salvador, Santa Anna Belize. He is a worker at the temple right now and a friend of Pres Steimle, so on Tues we got to have a meeting with him and ask him questions about him and his wife and his family and the mission. It was great. He said that one of the goals for our mission for the next 2 years will be to establish a stake in Belize. He said currently Belize has 23 Ramas pero no estacas(23 branches no stakes). He also said that though Belize is bigger in size it has fewer people than all of the mission in ElS. He also said that the people of Belize speak Spanish(some of them) English(some of them) and a blend of the 2(some of them) as well as a whole ton of mayan dialects. It could be interesting! On Monday we got to leave the CCM and get to do some real contacting and tocar la puertas. My comp and I talked to 10 people and got 9 references for the missionaries of this area. It was so amazing. Although I didn´t always understand the language. My Comp, Hna Montalvan is such a great missionary. She told me to not worry about asking for words, because they´ll understand that I´m learning the language and will appreciate it even more for it. So the day after the Steimles got back, One of the Hnas was sick, she threw up and then passed out and was out for about an hour by the time we got her to the ER. They couldn't get wake up pres Steimle so her comps ran panicked into my aula, and my comps and I woke up Pres steimle and called Dr McArthur and one of my comps was a CNA before the mission which down here means she´s a nurse-weird- and she helped me get the vitals to tell the doc so he could tell us what to do. Anyway pres Steimle and Hno Dubon took her to the hospital ER and she was admitted and stayed there for 24 hours and then came back to the CCM. She is just starting to feel better today. The weirdest thing is they don't know why she passed out. On another note, the NA elders are getting a bit stir crazy, yesterday was ´cambien su corbata cada agenda cambiar´ and they changes ties like 7 times. it was weird. they also have ´boot day´' and who knows what else. I am running out of time but real fast I want to tell you that I learned something really cool. Moroni 10 3-5 real intent means that when they get an answer they are willing to act on it. Many don't feel like they get an answer because they don't have any intention of acting on it. We heard an account on mormon.org of a girl who was afraid of getting an answer because she knew she'd have to act on it. Haven't gotten any cartas as of yet, but I'm hopeful for tomorrow. Love y'all tons Mem

Hola from Guratemala, week 4

2011-03-02T11:20:00.002-07:00

Hola familia,
Mom don´t worry I did get David's email, but if anyone else has tried I haven't received theirs. Send me their addresses and I'll add them to my list of mailing people. Dani yes I have pday Tuesday last week It was because of the market thing as well as that the new missionaries needed the compluters at all hours of the day to be able to email their families to tell them they arrived safely. This week it has been a little cooler here in Guatemala. Overcast and I feel like I need a sweater (its probably about low 60s or high 50s) but when the sun comes out I am plenty warm. It has been raining alot so I haven't gotten to be outside very much this week, nice for my comps, they don't get burned but I get a little stir crazy. Last Wednesday we went to the temple. The session was in Spanish for the first(and probably only) time they have this thing about wanting us to do the sessions in our native language but last week there weren't enough NAs to do a session in English. I have a new Latina companion her name is Hna Montalvan. She is from Honduras and is serving in my mission with me. She speaks English pretty well which is helpful for me because then when I don't know a word in Spanish she can help me with it. She was a preschool teacher in Honduras before the mission, and she taught the little kids English. Hermana and President Steimle are out of the CCM for the week. We have the temple this afternoon and I'm so excited for it. I'm learning a lot and am having a lot of fun. I still struggle with understanding some people, I think it is because everyone says things differently. I especially struggle with those that talk like Argentinians and those that speak fast and slur their words. I can usually get the gist of what people are saying, but ask me a direct question and I am so lost. When I say those that talk like Argentinians I mean they make their Ys and lls sound like Js. It almost sounds a little like Portuguese. I am doing well and am looking forward to hearing from you. I hope I get your dear elders tomorrow! Love ya tons!!!

¿Que es le avi de guatemala?, Week 3

2011-02-22T15:41:00.002-07:00

Hola famila! I'm glad you are all having fun in Texas and on the road trip. I've been praying for your safety. Mail came on Mon, took it 2-3 weeks to get here from the states so if you haven't sent me something already please don't send anything to this mission home 'cause I won't get it before i leave and then it will be lost for who knows how long. (snail mail I mean not dear elders) I got your dear elders last Thursday. Soooo I learned so much this week, but I'm going to have to snail mail it to you because I don't have much time. We are the oldest group of NAs now my comps are both the coordinating sisters and I am the music coordinator. I think that is kind of funny because both of my comps are more musically inclined than me. One of them plays like 5 instruments. What that basically means is that I am in charge of putting together musical numbers for Sundays and Tuesdays. # of our elders (of 7) have decided to move up into a more advanced level. They'll have the last three weeks as a part of a Latino district. they'll be with the Latinos all the time and it will be great for them because they already get the grammar and haven't really learned much in our class because they already knew so much from school. That means that we'll only have 7 total in our district and so we have to move class rooms tonight. Today we had our trip out of the ccm and tomorrow we get to go to the temple again. On our trip out we went and saw the relief map, (look it up on line if you can) it is a geographic 3d HUGE map of Guatemala. It was built in 1905 so it doesn't have the boarder between Guatemala and Belize. Then we went to the Mercado Central where I got stuff for yall I also am going to try to snail mail home a couple of quetzel bills. (but not the stuff right now) then after the Mercado central we went to a museum and a mall (they are joined) where I had McDonalds and we toured the museum. The museum was small but cool. It is dug under one of the mounds. There are more than 200,000 ancient ruins throughout Guatemala and southern Mexico. Many of them are still buried because they are fragile and are able to be preserved if they remail buried, but they dug under one and you can see what they found under and be under the mound. Oh the mounds cover pyramids, and these pyramids are believed to be ancient burial sites because they find skeletons at the bottom. Anyway it was great to be out for a while. It would have been even greater if I hadn't gotten a migraine today, but I took meds and wore my sunglasses and I was good. It did make it difficult to understand what people were saying though. I kept having to turn to my comps and ask, '¿what did they day?' My comps were really good about it though. Ok so some of the great things I learned 1 there are 2 great reasons to go to church 1st and most important is to renew your covenants with god. and 2 is to edify other people. I learned and I believe it is true, if you go with those two purposes in mind you will never sit through a boring Sunday school, relief society, priesthood or sacrament meeting. also there are 4 great parts to a talk 1- a principle or doctrine 2- a story, or example, 3- a challenge to live the principle or doctrine and 4 a testimony of the truthfulness of that principle or doctrine. We also had a great object lesson about the gospel and how the gospel helps change lives. Well not much more time, but if you have the chance I was told about this site on LDS.org that has like a google earth. You should totally try to find it and look at the geography of this area. It is really amazing. When we were at the relief map´our guide said there is one mountain in Guatemala that gets snow(for like 3 days out of the year) he said so maybe you can visit there if you ever miss snow(I told him I wouldn't be here and he said there are no mountains that high in Belize) Love ya'll Be safe and have fun.

Greetings from sunny winter guatemala, Week 2

2011-02-16T10:28:00.002-07:00

So this week has been pretty good so far, well kind of. Sunday I was sick and missed all of the meetings on Sunday, luckily here at this MTC my comps were able to go to all but church itself. I took medication received a priesthood blessing and slept most of the day and I am feeling much better, although when I was planning with my comps I thought...Oh happy birthday Ben, so HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY BEN!!!!. The temple opened up yesterday. So we got to go to the temple here in Guatemala. It is a really small temple. Yesterday was also our ´day in the park´. The 3 week NAs and our latin comps all boarded a bus and headed to a park in downtown Guatemala city. We spent about 2 and a half hours contacting with out latin comps. I said, hello, and pretended like I understood what was being said, and when Hna Bernardez looked at me I testified that I knew the church of Jesus Christ was again on the earth and that families can be together forever. We got 5 references, with was about average.There were some of the missionaries that found awesome investigators, ours might have been, but i didn't understand them so who knows. Entonces this is the last week for the latinos and the first group of North Americans. When they leave next Tues my group of NAs gets to go on a tour of the city and go shopping in the mall. I don{t know what I´ll buy. but I am excited for it. I think our pday will be on next Tuesday because of that. Tomorrow we teach our last lesson in English. Whew! Teaching in English is so easy. I never thought I´d say that but really it is. Its a lot harder to express your thoughts and feelings in a language you don´t really know. I asked a Hna here to cut my hair she cut it yesterday. Its about 3 inches shorter now. I just had her remove the layers, because they were starting to look frizzy. This week we had a lesson on the Christlike attributes(ch 6 in PMG) we split up and each taught an attribute. One of the groups of elders gave an excellent lesson on Hope. They said ´hope is the anchor of the soul´ another one said ít is because of hope that we have an eternal perspective. it is that hope that helps us realize that the troubles and difficulties that we encounter are really only a small blip in the eternal scheme of things. It is that hope that helps us realize how pointless some avenues of escape are.´ he said more about some of his friends back home who try to escape from their problems through alcohol and partying all night and sleeping all day. He said The eternal perspective that hope gives him helped him realize that the end of this life for all of us is the same, and that it is what he chooses to do with time he has between now and death that really can make a difference in someones earthly life and in their eternal life. He said hope and faith have given him a direction and a perspective on life. I thought yes that is why I am here. We have hope. we have a purpose, and I know how we can have joy in this life and in the next. Through living the gospel, through internalizing the gospel so we become Christlike in all that we are. When we are Christlike, we have joy. I only have another 3 weeks here It is amazing how time flies. I still feel like I don{t know any more than I did when I came but I understand more and more Spanish, especially when they enunciate and speak slowly. Yesterday we had devotional and had a speaker from the area 70 come. he told me I´ll be in ELS for the temple dedication (in April) and I´ll get a new mission pres too (in July) Love yall Got to go Mem

Guatemala CCM (MTC), week 1

2011-02-09T15:59:00.003-07:00

Hola family!
OK so real fast the business end of stuff. If you send me a letter or a package(not through pouch) don´t put Hermana or the CCM or any of those words that are affiliated with Mormons and missionaries or I won{t get it. The weather here is so nice! it is amazing! we have had a cold day a couple of times and it was like oh i might need a sweater. Most of the time it is warmer than it ever gets there in the summer. My Latino comp is way cool and is very patient with me. Some days I don{t do to bad at Spanish and some days its horrible and I don{t understand a word that they say. Yesterday was like that it was frustrating. Today we only have p-day until lunch because the temple is closed. But when the temple opens back up we´ll get to go twice that week. Today I went shopping(kind of) the CCM has some people come in and set up their tables with some stuff they sell (like bags and scripture cases etc) I got a scripture case and a bag. If you happen to be sending a package to me, I´d appreciate some more peds(those little socks) with the rubber on the back and some more normal socks for exercise. I realized I really don{t have enough socks. I get to do my laundry on Thurs. We only have 2 washers and dryers for all the hnas so we take turns on different days doing our laundry and my day is Thurs between 1145 and 2. The food here is really good. its all different than how we cook in America but all very yummy. The only thing i don{t like is the milk. Boys if you think your milk is bad at least it is just pasteurized. This stuff is irradiated. and I´d rather have pasteurized any day. this has a metallic flavor to it that is rather unpleasant. It almost makes me sick in fact. But the yogurt is good so its not like I don't get dairy. We´ve had some very interesting things. but its been really yummy. Every day we have some kind of juice. Sometimes it is like papaya juice, somedays like cantaloupe juice, sometimes watermelon juice. Today we had strawberry juice. it was like drinking strawberry jam. I thought of you dad. The juice is soo good, but I really need to start drinking the water instead because they put so much sugar in the juices. Oh did I say that the juice is real juice like just juiced juice. SOOOOO yummy. It was great to talk to you all when I called. I need to go so I can read the letters you wrote.
Love ya. Mem

Hola from Guatemala

2011-02-02T14:40:00.003-07:00

Hola familia!
We arrived in Guatemala this am at 6 their time. The flight from LAX to Guatemala was about 4.5 hours and we arrived very tired. We unpacked our bags, and ate breakfast, and then had an orientation to the CCM. It is even smaller than I thought. It sounds like their goal is to make it as big as I thought but right now the only missionaries that are trained in the CCM are the Latinos going to CA and the NA Elders serving in Guatemala and the Hermanas serving in CA. The buildings currently have a capacity of about 50 missionaries. The goal is to have all the missionaries that are being sent to CA come to the Guatemala MTC, but right now that isn't logical. The temple is right next to the Mission home, and we can go on our p-days but the temple is closed for the next two weeks for cleaning and maintenance. We will go when it opens again.

We have a new district. All of the Elders that Hna Atkisson traveled down with and then the three Hnas. We will also have a Latino companion. We will be with our companions the gringo hnas for classes, but gym and meals we will spend with our Latino comps. We haven't been told yet who it will be.

The MTC here is so beautiful. And it is marvelously warm and humid. Because it is winter there is a nice cool breeze, and the temp is about 70 today. We studied outside this afternoon for comp study. It is so fun to hear all the sounds of this place, none of them are familiar to me. It is so pretty.

The CCM is behind gates and fences. You cant really see what is on the other side of the fence. As the fence goes around some parts it has that barbed wire stuff across the top. Most of the time we´ll be in the CCM but on the 8th I get to go out to go with the Mission President´s wife and one of the Hnas.

Our classes will all be in Spanish. And the MTC Pres said that we will have two types of meetings. Those meetings dedicated to us learning the gospel and the doctrine, and those will be in English and meetings dedicated to us learning the language and those will be in Spanish. He said that unless it is a grammar principle to not be really worried if we don´t understand what is being said. (HA I found the ´ ok sorry about my poor punctuation and my run on paragraphs. It is a Spanish keyboard and I can´t figure out how to make a new paragraph.)

Most of the missionaries here are either new like us or have been here for three weeks. I´m a bit concerned because we´re supposed to be teaching in Spanish this week and I don´t feel like I can communicate the message in Spanish. I have so much work to do.

The MTC president´s wife was kind enough to get the MTC pres to let Hna Newren and I to have an hour nap this morning. It makes studying easier if your eyes aren´t blurry and they don´t keep trying to close. It was very nice to be able to take a nap, and I´m pretty sure I´ll sleep pretty well tonight as well. Pray for me to be able to remember what I study so I can learn how to teach the gospel and communicate in this language.

Sorry my message is so disjointed.

We´ve had two meals so far and the food is sooo good. Flavors like I don´t normally have, but it is soo good. We had eggs this morning that were scrambled and had some kind of red pepper in them and I don´t know what else but they were really really yummy. If I could communicate what I thought I´d have asked the ladies in the Cafeteria what they put it in. But even if I could have asked, what they would have answered probably wouldn´t have make sense.

This is such a pretty place. The building is made of so much rich looking wood.

I don't have much more time, so I´ll just say it was wonderful to be able to talk to you all and I love and miss you.
Mem

Note from the editor: I took the liberty of making paragraphs, so that I could read it better... Hope none of the rest of you mind! ;) To get the full flavor of Mem's email, imagine it as all one paragraph...
Anybody know where the "enter" key is on a Spanish keyboard is?

MTC, week 3

2011-02-01T10:06:00.003-07:00

Hola familia!

This week in the MTC has been great. I feel like I am starting to understand what people are saying to me when they speak in Spanish. I usually catch about every 3rd or 4th word. Sometimes its enough to be able to get what their talking about, sometimes the key words I don't understand. I'm getting really good at the dictionary though.

We taught the 2nd lesson (the POS) this week . It went really well. Pretty soon we'll have to teach in Spanish and I'm a little concerned about that. I don't feel like I know enough vocab to be able to teach the gospel in Spanish.

I'm excited to head to Guatemala today, and am excited to be able to see Hermana Atkisson, We sent her off last night. She was scheduled to fly out with 9 elders. Hna Newren told the elders to look after her. We aren't sure if we'll be comps in Guatemala.

Thanks for the socks Dani! My district was like, socks? Your sister sent you socks? They don't know that socks are a great gift. They work well in my shoes that mom sent me. My sketchers they slide off my heel. My other socks have a rubber grippy thingy on the heel that helps them stay on. And thanks for the notebook. Hno Pepper told us to write down words we don't know in a notebook. I have one, but I'm sure it will be full by the time we get through the Guatemala MTC.

I snail mailed a letter home last p-day I hope it got there. It has my Guatemala address.

JIC the package address is
Hermana Memorie Allen
Bulevar Vista Hermosa 23-71
Vista Hermosa I, Zona 15
01015 Guatemala City
Guatemala C.A.

and pouch is
Hermana Memorie Allen
Guatemala MTC
POB 30150 Salt Lake City UT
84130-0150

The letter had some specifics about how to use pouch.

I love you all and I miss you.
Got to go, Love you all so much.

Love Mem

Note from Dani:
The specifiecs about how to use pouch are outlined here:
Pouch mail

Basically, write on one sheet of paper, on one side only, fold it into thirds, "Use two pieces of tape or two sticker tabs on the top to secure it, not more than one inch from each side, but do not seal the ends."
And address it as if it were an envelope. Like this:

See the return label in the upper left and the address in the center? The stamp goes in the upper right corner.
:)

MTC, week 2

2011-01-25T11:00:00.001-07:00

Hola mi familia!
Greetings from the MTC!

My departure date from the MTC is officially Feb 1. I leave at 4:30 pm and catch a flight to LAX and then a red eye to Guatemala, and get to Guatemala at about 5 am. :)
So... expect a box from me. I'm going to mail home my coat and other winter things, as well as my temple clothes (I can rent).

So now that I have that part done, My routine here at the MTC is getting more regular (just in time to go to a new MTC). We wake up, go to an early AM exercise class, come back and get in our pros (proselyting clothes) and go to the class to study for personal study. Then we go to breakfast and MWFS we go to the gymn, then shower and go back to class (some days we have Hermano Osuna, some days we have Hermano Pepper, and some days we do companion study), then idioma (language) study. Lunch is at 1230 and then class again, dinner is at 6, then class again. Then we plan for the next day and go to bed.
P-day is a lot different. We go to the am exercise class, go get a sack breakfast (b/c we don't have to be in pros) and go and eat it in the room, shower, study and then come and write you. Then we get to go to the temple, then lunch, then comp study, then laundry, then idioma, and then Tues devotional. Then district meeting, then plan and go to bed. :)
I'm learning a lot, though I am not learning as fast as I'd like to. My comps and I get along well. And we have a lot in common.
I'm enjoying this experience, and I'm starting to understand what I'm being told when the maestros talk in Spanish. I hope I get it even better by the end of the week so that I can understand what they say in Guatemala.

Love ya all, and I'll let you know as soon as I do how to reach me in Guatemala. My comps say that Dear Elder works in all the MTCs they think. So if nothing else that will work until I can let you know on my P-day.
My comp says she thinks we can call and tell you that we arrived safely so I may be calling next week(and maybe not maybe someone else will call you).

Love you all
Mem

First week in the MTC

2011-01-18T13:05:00.007-07:00

Hola!
The MTC is nothing like I'd expected, but it is very fun I've learned so much and I’ve only been here for almost a week. I have a strange request for you computer savvy people. I want you to write to me using www.dearelder.com It is like e-mailing, but I get a hard copy and since I can get a dear elder any day of the week whereas I can only get on a computer for 30 min on p-day it would make my time more effective if you could. I understand though if you can't make it work.

The MTC has been a very fun experience. Yesterday we had a "scenario" where we made conversation and bore testimony in Spanish. I was able to do it, & I was able to understand most of what they said (I think partly because they spoke slowly). I am part of a trio. My Companions, Hermana Newren and Hermana Atkisson, are both from Utah. Hermana Atkisson is going to Nicaragua and Hermana Newren is going to El Salvador east. We have some great elders in our district and some fun teachers. It was a little bit odd for me to be older and the same age as my teacher. One of the teachers, Hermano Osuna is from Mexico and in Mexico you can go on a mission when you are 18, so he's just recently back and he's only 20. Hermano Pepper has been teaching here for 1.5 years and he's 23 same as me. Today is Tuesday and it is our zone's p-day. We get to go to the temple today and I'm so excited. Hermana Atkisson has some medical stuff that wasn't right on her papers so we have to go to the medical center and we may not make it to the session this week, but we can still do initiatories.

There is so much to do and the longer I'm here the more things I realized I forgot. I forgot to give my address to so many people and I forgot to get so many addresses.
I don't have much time left so I'll say I love you all so much and thank you for your loving support.
Love Mem

PS: I have another 5 min and I imagine my compañeras will use all their minutes so I'll say a little more about the MTC.

The schedule is pretty hectic and there is so much to do all the time. The first three days I felt like I was back in the nursing program with how overwhelmed I felt and how much information I was receiving. But The lord helped me and while I am still receiving so much information every day I am coping a little better, although when the others in my district started getting mail I was a little bit jealous, I’ll admit.

The language I'm doing OK at but I'm struggling a bit on the grammar but it'll come with time. My goal is to be able to understand most of what people say to me by the time I leave the MTC and to be able to communicate what I want to others as well by using my own words and not memorized phrases.
GTG

Note from Dani: Mem said in an aside note to me that she could email family from the MTC, but she has to "snail mail" anyone who's not family. I'm waiting to hear back weather I can post her ldsmail address on here or not. :)
But in the meantime, ya'll can send her letters through dearelder, and you won't have to spend a stamp. :)

About "dearelder.com"... Memorie can receive your letters almost immediately through dearelder, while in the Provo MTC and it is free (no stamps)! Once she goes to South America, her letters should go out pouch mail, once a week. And it's still free through dearelder. :) ---I believe I got that all correct... I tried to learn it all from the website. If anyone knows differently let me know and I can change this...

Additional Note: For those of you like me who read blogs with a reader, Mem created a side bar on her blog that has her mailing addresses listed on it. The current one is this:
Sister Memorie Sue Allen
MTC Mailbox #259
ELS-SANW 0317
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604-1793

MAJOR UPDATE!

2010-12-08T12:38:00.001-07:00

Wow, so I just realized that I haven't updated what I'm doing since May.
Well I decided to serve an LDS mission, and I report to the Provo MTC on January 12th of 2011. I will be serving in the El Salvador San Salvador West/Belize Mission Spanish speaking. I will be in the MTC in Provo for 3 weeks then I go to the MTC in Guatamala for 6 weeks. I plan on posting my addresses on here as well as on Facebook. I also hope to get my mom or sister to maybe post e-mails I send them (probably mass e-mails) on here, but we'll see. I know I would love to recieve mail from all.
I'm so excited to go and spread the Good News!
IN a more family related news update, Ben has decided to get married, and will be getting married this Saturday, they will be having their reception in January so that those of their friends who are in school can come. He's marrying Monique Langford, who is a native of San Antonio Texas. We are so excited to welcome her to the family.

Merry Christmas, yesterday LOL

2010-05-07T12:28:00.002-06:00

So yesterday we got about three inches of snow at home. Wonderful, as long as I forgot it is supposed to be spring. I really do like snow, but I'm ready to plant a garden, weed, water harvest and all that stuff. And Dad would really like to be in the fields, but we get snow/rain, then it melts and is almost dry enough to get into the fields when it rains/snows again. Don't get me wrong, I am very grateful for the moisture, but it'd be nice to have to crops into the ground before June. So yesterday I felt like I should be singing 'walkin' in a winter wonderland' and other not really christmas/but winter songs.
But today it is bright and sunny, and I could almost pretend that it is warm. The grass is green, and the trees are starting to bud out. Today it feels a little like early spring. : ) Yeay for spring!

Pick my self back up...

2010-04-06T13:41:00.003-06:00

So my last update is already out of date. On Friday my position with TVH was eliminated, and as of Friday I am no longer employed, which means I get the joy of starting the job application process all over again. I'm doing alright, I guess mostly I'm just frustrated. Just when things were going well, I have to start over again. So onward and forward I go... :)

Workin'

2010-03-24T13:53:00.003-06:00

Hey y'all I'm a bit lax on my blogging, but that's mostly 'cause I have a job, and other than that I think my life is pretty dull. But here is a real quick update on me.
I'm living at home, helping mom out, and savings money on rent, while I am working at TVH in the PACU(post anesthesia care unit). I am loving it. For me it is kind of like working in the ER 'cause you see the patient, take care of them, then send them home or send them to the floor. Total time with one patient is less than 6 hours. I think I like it so much because it changes so much, and I, oddly enough, like variety when I work. I keep telling myself that maybe I really do like change in general, but I still haven't convinced me. (strange side note). Hmm, what else, Oh yeah, I cut my hair. Chopped it of to the chin. its great, a little anoying 'cause it doesn't pin back real well, but the amount of shampoo I use has dramatically decreased, and it is great to have a change. I think I might need another change in a little while, I'll have to think up what I can do to change up my life a little (like rearrange my room, or redo the walls or something.)
My mom has been doing spring cleaning, and she has this kick that she'd like her house to loose some weight, but all we've really done is talk about it. We started with the upstairs closet, but I don't think anything has left yet. I need to go through the books and thin out the ones that no one reads, but before that I need to clean my room and make my closet loose some weight. I have stuff in there that doesn't fit, or I never wear that I really do just need to get rid of. I heard a great idea the other day how to figure out which clothes you never wear. Turn all your hangers around so they are the "wrong" way (bear with me you OCD nut), then as you wear the items of clothing from the closet, turn the hanger the "right" way and by the end of a pre-determined amount of time you will know what clothes you never wear (think ok when I get out my spring/summer wardrobe I'll do this, and when fall comes I'll know which clothes are just taking up space.) genius.
Alright, so that's enough rambling. That foray into my mind was probably more than you really wanted, but there it is.
I think that was rather therapeutic. I may have to ramble on here again soon.

Turkey, Greece and Egypt on the Norwegian Jade

2009-10-23T22:59:00.012-06:00

Mom and I recently returned from our 11 day cruise to Turkey, some of the Greek Isles and Egypt. The flight over was relatively uneventful, and when we arrived in Istanbul it was about 530 pm. We finally got through customs, and got on the shuttle to take us to the Jade and arrived at the Jade at about 9 pm. We were exhausted, but we signed up for our shore excursions and are dinner, and then went to bed. The next morning we went on a tour of Istanbul. We started with the Blue Mosque, or the Mosque of Sultan Ahmet. It is the only mosque that has 6 minarets. It was beautiful. It is called the blue mosque because of the large number of hand painted tiles on the interior using predominantly the same shade of blue, and making the inside seem to be mostly blue. It was beautiful and impressive. Then we went to the Topakapi palace. It was the residence of the Sultans of turkey for hundreds of years, and we got to tour through the Harem, and the treasure rooms. The kitchen was under renovations, so we didn't get to see it. In the Harem we saw the same hand painted tiles that decorated the inside of the blue mosque and got some really cool close up pics of the tiles. The walls were covered with these tiles. We also saw the treasure room, and all the riches of the sultans that are in there, including the dagger, and this diamond that was about the size of my fist. We also saw a whole lot of other jewels and jewel encrusted all sorts of things. Then we had the opportunity to go to the grand Bazaar. The bazaar is a large building that has hundreds of shops in it. All of the shops are very small. About 8 feet across, and 10 feet deep, so full of merchandise there is barely room to walk. All of them are selling things and call out, "Hey lady, buy a nice peshmina scarf/hand painted pottery/purse/bag/jewelry/etc, best price!" One scarf seller proceeded to use me as a model for his scarves in an effort to sell mom on the idea of buying one after she told him, "I don't wear scarves." "Then as gift." he says and ties scarf after scarf around my neck, finally topping my head with a hat for the picture. We laughed and finally worked our way through the maze of shops back to the bus that took us to the ship for departure. We took some time on deck to pose for pictures, as we were between two continents. The one side is Asia, the other is Europe.
The next day we were up ridiculously early and watched them dock the boat in Izmir, and then we made our way on a tour to Ephesus, and a carpet weaving place. Both were very cool. Ephesus is the ruins of an ancient city that was a thriving Roman city. The library has been reconstructed using as much original material as possible, and the marble paved streets have been excavated out to be able to be walked on. They had a water system running under their public toilets which effectively was a flushing system. There are 40 something side by side holes! Pretty impressive. We also stood in the theater where the apostle Paul taught the Ephesians. Then we went to the carpet weaving school where we learned how they get silk from the silk worms, how they dye the threads with natural dye, and how they weave carpets, as well as we saw hundreds and hundreds of hand woven carpets with brilliant colors. They were beautiful and soft and $150+. Less expensive than any you'll find in the states, but still more expensive than any of us could afford.
Our next port was Myconos. Myconos was built with narrow maze like streets to confuse the pirates that used to plague the Island. The streets certainly were maze like, and confusing to these two tourists, but it was a beautiful place, and the colors of the buildings were stunning. The buildings were painted white, with blue shutters, and doors. There were a few shutters and doors painted a green color, or a yellow color, but mostly blue. That shade of blue is believed to ward off evil, so it is used quite readily. We played in the Mediterranean sea there, and the blues in that sea are stunning.
Our next port was Santorini. Santorini is an island that is shaped like a crescent moon. It was a volcano that erupted and much of the volcano fell off into the sea. The volcano is still present on an island across the way. The bay where the Jade stopped was so deep it was impossible to lower the anchor. We stayed in place by using the jets that maneuver the ship. And we were ferried to shore aboard ships which they called tenders. The dock sits at the base of a very steep cliff that stairs have been carved into. Older houses were carved into the cliff face. We were ferried ashore to the dock where we had three options, ride a donkey to the top, where the town was, ride the tram, or walk. The donkey was 5 euros, the tram 4. The distance, about a mile. We were informed of an earlier planned departure than was scheduled because of an impending storm that they believed would shut down the tram. We chose to ride the tram up, and wander around the town for a while. We had planned to go to the beach, but with our time cut short we didn't think we could make it. Besides that it was rather windy and cloudy which made it a bit chilly if you were wet. It was a shame really, I would have liked to see the black sand beaches.
That night we had 4-7 foot swells. Mom woke up really tight. That day we were on Crete. We went to Knossos. The ruins of the ancient Minoan civilization, which is believed to have met its end by a natural disaster, namely the eruption of the volcano at Santorini. They had some really big pottery and there were some reconstructions of what the palace would have looked like. The minotaur gets its start here.
The next day was our day at sea, then we went to Alexandria. Our tour group picked us up and we had a whirl wind tour of Egypt that day and the next. We visited Giza where we saw the tomb at Saqqara, the first pyramid to be built, then we went to great Pyramid where we rode camels, and got to touch the pyramids, and see them up close, then we went and saw the Spinx. Where mom was offered 10 thousand camels for me. That night we had a Nile cruise, which was a bit of a disappointment, and we stayed at the Sheraton that night. The next day bright and early we went to the citadel, where we visited another mosque, and then we went to the Cairo museum. The mosque was impressive, but like the rest of Egypt in dire need of a good cleaning, and the museum was like no other I have ever been in. The museum was almost like a warehouse, with Egyptian artifacts scattered through the whole thing. There were sarcophagus in the middle of the floor with no rope or glass or anything exept a sign every so often saying, please don't touch. The museum needs updated, and there are supposedly plans for a new museum, but I don't see that happening at any fast rate. Egypt over all, very dirty, and I came back to the ship smelling horrid.
The next day we were at sea, and lazed about the ship all day, the next day we were in Katakalon. We rode the train to the ancient site of Olympia. We were told the museum didn't open until 130, but we later found out that it had opened earlier even though the sign said Mondays 130. The archeological site was cool, and we got pictures next to some really cool stuff . The pillars are huge, I got a picture of mom standing next to a section of a fallen one. It is wider across than she is tall.
The next stop was Napthlion, but we got hit with some type of Egyptian bug that mom was afraid to get off the ship and be ferried to port, so we just looked at the island from the ship, and we watched them put the ferry boats back on board at the end of the day.
The next day we disembarked in Piraeus where we took a taxi to Athens to our hotel. We then explored a bit of Athens. We saw the acropolis, the theater of Dionysus, the Accropolis museum, currently only 1 euro, and the temple of Zeus. Then we went to bed woke up really early and flew home.
We arrived in Jackson hole more than 24 hours later, and subsequently crashed in our beds, ready to sleep for a day. We had a blast, and enjoyed our time together. We also had a marvelous vacation, and came back ready to get to work preparing the house for the Holidays, after we had recovered from Jet Lag that is. :D

I miss naps

2009-10-03T19:32:00.002-06:00

Or at least the benefits of cheerfulness resulting from the nap. A nap nowdays results in me feeling groggy for the rest of the day. I'm visiting Sky, Lacey Abi and Emmalyn right now, and when Emmalyn doesn't get a nap, she is definately not a cheerful little girl, which she is normally. I wish that all the world could be cheered up just by having a nap. On another note, my nieces are adorable, and very fun to play with.
I'm looking forward to my cruise with mom, and am really excited to get a few more stamps in my passport. :D Moving on.
GC was great, I really enjoyed it.
My Branch is a blast, and a half.
And my job search is still unsuccessful.
That's me updated in a nutshell.

Greetings Y'all

2009-06-29T13:53:00.003-06:00

And Now for the grand update from the fascinating world of ME. Mom, me, Jake, Zac and Chelsey all headed to Martin's Cove on Thursday morning. The hike up into the cove was fun and it was very entertaining to see all the children playing together. Thursday night we drove to the Willie center, where we were nearly eaten alive by mosquitoes. Never have I ever seen so many mosquitoes in one place. With the wave of the hand you could hit 10-15, and that isn't counting the ones that flew away. When slapping someones back you could be garanteed to come away with at least five dead buggars. Every family went through at least one tall container of mosquito spray within the first 16 hours. Never have I had to apply squito spray every time I stopped. We hesitated to wash our faces because we knew that we would wash off the repellent and be bit at least 20 times from the bathroom to the tent. There were children who looked like they had a rash on their cheeks because they had so many bites. Friday morning we went for a ten mile trek with our handcarts. We had about two families per cart, and our family was teamed up with another family from our ward who also had left their dad at home. There were only three males in our group, Zac-9, Jake-11 and Jake-16. There were also four women and one girl to pull our handcart. We headed out trying to avoid the mud puddles at first, then we came to a puddle that there was no way to aviod. The boys headed through diligently pushing the cart, and getting wet up to the knees. We headed through several pastures, and crossed many high waters, several of the puddles were so deep they had a current. One such puddle hit me at about the crotch. We were all soaked before lunch, first because it was raining, and second because of the puddles we waded through with the handcarts. We got to the river crossing that afternoon and were told that they didn't want us to pull the handcarts across because it was still high water, about to the waist, and they didn't want us to be in water that covered the axle of the carts. The missionaries were a bit surprised when we told them that we had already traveled through several puddles that were to the axles on the carts, though their current wasn't enough to sweep the carts down stream like the river was. Though at the deepest point the river was only up to my waist. It still had a current that I was glad not to have to pull a handcart across. If I hadn't had a rope to hold onto I could have been swept off my feet. We had brought water shoes along, but by the time we reached the river, our feet had already been wet for about 8 hours, so a little clean water was refreshing. We also took the opportunity to take off our shoes and socks, and wring them out, to minimize the squishing of the water in our shoes.
We got back to camp, and to our joy found that they had fogged multiple times that day. The mosquitoes were few and far between, which was a great contrast to the entire hike, and the day before at camp. I think the rest of the night I only saw about 100 mosquitoes. It was fabulous. Loved watching and listening to the children play together. They had no electronics, and were entertained by playing red rover, tag, football, and frisbee. The parents could let their children wander, because everyone knew who the child was, and who they belonged to. It wasn't uncommon to see one of the older children leading a crying little one back to the child's parents.
The entire experience was a learning one for me. It really does take a village/community to raise a child. The ward supplies that community, and everyone looks out for everyone. This ward really was a family. In hearing the stories of those ancestors that left everything they had, thinned and thinned their belongings down to the point that everything they owned would fit into a handcart, and then pulled it across the plains all because they had a desire to join the saints in Zion, I was impressed to see that all these pioneers were willing to go through, and they wouldn't have changed the experience for anything. I remember a story about an 11 year old boy who carried his little brother who was 4. He carried his little brother all day, and even though they fell behind, he kept carrying him. He managed to get them into camp, where he collapsed. He had given everything he had to help his brother, even his life. That 11 year old boy died there in camp that night, but the rest of his family made it to the valley.
I kept thinking about that. He gave everything. That is what the lord asks of me. He asks me to give everything, even my life. Not my life in death, often what he asks of me is much harder than death. He asks for my life in living as he would were he here. In serving, in forgiving, in being charitable, in being willing to reach outside my comfort zone to help those around me. He asks me to choose the best option. To listen and obey when prompted to do something. He asks me to give my all. That 11 year old boy managed to do it. He served, and gave everything he had. He gave his life in service. And so should mine be.
We had a wonderful experience, and had a fun time to boot, in spite of the mosquitoes. TTFN

Update

2009-05-28T12:35:00.002-06:00

Hello all! Lets see, not much going on in my life. I'm still applying for jobs, and not really getting anywhere. I've been working for dad, and helping mom. I made two skirts and three bonnets for the trek to martin's cove, and bound my mom's quilt that she quilted like two years ago, but hadn't gotten around to binding it. I've run errands, and cooked dinner lots. Recently my mom and I have taken up walking, we usually make it about 2-3 miles in the time we allot ourselves for a walk. This morning mom decided she wanted to try to be able to run again, so we ran the telephone poles. We would run one, then walk the next. We went up to above Teton springs, but not quite all the way to the top of pole canyon road. By the time we got up there mom was really tired, and I was reminded how out of shape I am. On the way back we ran one pole, and walked two. It was nice to go running again, I only hope that I'll continue to have the motivation to go. Tomorrow it will be up to me to get mom out of the house, 'cause there is no way she'll be excited about going running again if I don't. It is time for me to go home, TTFN.

Another update!

2009-05-03T19:09:00.003-06:00

It is sleeting/snowing. Bah! But really thats okay because I can do other things this way. Today I returned to the singles branch. It was great to be welcomed back, and I am looking forward to getting involved in the branch again. Ben and I watched the CES fireside on his computer upstairs, well I watched it, Ben napped. I thought it was excellent of course. Yesterday was the Stake preparedness fair. I enjoyed it, and I also obtained all sorts of information for my future, a pretty random assortment, but all interesting and helpful. Not much else is going on, other than I got in contact with my friend Crystal. We've known each other since before we were in kindergarten. It was great to see her again, and I'll probably be going to many of the singles activities with her. Other than that my life is pretty boring. I put in applications at many hospitals, but I haven't heard anything, and so I keep waiting. I think it is a test of my patience and learning how to trust in Heavenly Father's plan.

spring! come back!

2009-04-14T14:19:00.003-06:00

Sigh, spring is taunting me. When I moved all of my stuff out of my apartment in Rexburg last Saturday, the weather was beautiful. The sun was shining brightly and I was very comfortable in my shorts that I wore. When I arrived in Victor that night it was to dark to see much, but I could tell that there were still snow banks lining the road, big ones. The sun came up for a beautiful Easter Sunday, and I was hoping that the fields of white that I could see would start to melt, BUT, spring ran the other direction on Monday as IT SNOWED. Spring screamed, FOOLED YOU! and laughed manically. I haven't seen the sun since, as all day today it has been raining/snowing. It depends on when you look out the window whether you see little while fluffy things falling or just splashes in the puddles. Its cold and wet, and I want spring back. Of course it is only April, so it isn't surprising that spring is taunting me. I'm sure it will come back sometime, I think, I hope. Sigh.

Graduation!

2009-04-10T17:11:00.003-06:00

Happy day! Today was graduation! YAY! I am a bachelors degree nurse. Now I have to find a job.... Thanks to Sky for coming to support me, and being the photographer behind my camera! For graduation Sky and Lacey gave me the most amazing shirt, especially amazing for one as vertically challenged as me- 5'nothing.

I LOVE it! You're the best Lac!

Sad news

2009-03-27T15:12:00.002-06:00

So I wrote a while ago about my plans to go to Nauvoo on the church history tour. It was kinda going to be a last HURRAH as a BYUI student. Unfortunately the weather is abominable, so the school canceled my tour. If I would be here next semester I could go on the tour then, but unfortunately I graduate, so I am SOL as far as it goes with the school. I guess I'll have to make plans to go some other day. On a brighter note, because I thought I was going to be gone this weekend I worked my but off all week to get as far ahead on my homework as I could, so now I can't say I am completely caught up, but as far as assignments go, I have one 1 page paper, four 4 page papers and one 8 page paper, and three quizes to go for the one class, and a powerpoint to assemble, post and discuss for my other class(nursing that is). Also a ton of reading to do in the bible. I need to read the last five chapters in Leviticus, I need to have Numbers read by next Thursday, and I need to read my student manual on the OT. Also I have a chapter on Islam to read and some exerpts from the Q'uran to read as well.
I also only have three more weeks until graduation. I graduate Friday April 10th. The ceremony is at 9 in the morning I think, then there is another at 11, and then I'll be done with my bachelors. What will I do next?
I've been looking for jobs, and that has been an interesting search. I can only pray that I'll be able to find one that is willing to work with me.
I have plans to go ballrooom dancing with a friend this evening. It could be very entertaining for me to learn how to ballroom dance. I'll figure it out somehow.
I guess one thing good about graduating is that I can act like a dork and not care, 'cause I probably won't ever see any of the people who see me acting like a dork ever again! : ) Over the past semester I've been known to teach people dances in the strangest of places, like on the sidewalk going someplace, or while waiting for food. I've been known to do the Pate-pate walking across the parking lot(it's a tahitian dance, LOTS of hip). I have to say I have had so much fun this past semester. I am looking forward to what life will bring, but I am also so sad to be leaving.
But it is time for me to get back to searching for jobs. So, if any of you who read this blog hear anything about a Med-Surg Nursing Job in Idaho, let me know!

Really quick update

2009-03-05T10:16:00.003-07:00

Well, school has been flying, and I have had a blast in my sewing and dance classes, and my water aerobics class haas been pretty fun too. I love my religion classes and because of those, my favorite days are tuesday and thursday because I get a double dose of religion class. : ) The sun is shining britely, and the days have been warm (ie 40s) the snow is staring to melt and the gound is muddy and the sidewalks are puddled. I love spring. (SARCASM DRIPPING) What I can't figure out is why my knees hurt. Not the "a storm is coming" ache, but the this knee has been in the wrong position for two long and now it won't bear weight well pain. It hurts to walk! I am really not looking forward to the stoll across campus today. On the lighter side, I have my information meeting for Nauvoo next thursday, and I am soooooo excited to get to go to Nauvoo! I need to do my nursing homework, but I have been having a hard time making myself do it. I guess it is bad when all other homework is more fun that the homework for you major. : ( I guess it is probably time for me to be done with school, though I just don't want the semester to end. I think I am going to miss school. I've been applying to jobs, and I have had an interview, but I don't know if I got the job and I should find out today, tomorrow or monday. I hope I got it, but if not I'll just have to widen my search for a job. : ( Time to limp up to the Taylor. ; )

Happy V-Day!

2009-02-14T10:36:00.002-07:00

What an odd holiday, Valentines day. The celebration of a Saint (Saint Valentine) who married roman soldiers to their sweethearts. Lets toss in the colors red and pink, and a little cherubim who goes around shooting people with arrows, as well as lots of little hearts. I suppose the hearts aren't so bad, and even though pink and red are definately not my favorite colors, I suppose that isn't really so bad either. Cupid though. The baby/toddler son of the Roman gods? A little toddler is going to decide who I fall in love with? Who thought this one through? Really I can just see this toddler, Ohhh, well she looks nice, and oooooh he looks nice, lets draw this bow, and shoot love arrows at them so they fall in love. How on earth is a toddler supposed to have the strength to draw a bow, and how often do you think he misses, though if he's been a toddler for the last 1700 years, he definately has had lots of practice.
Oh well, as my roomate said, Any reason to celebrate is a good reason.
School is keeping me busy, and I am working hard to get caught up in a couple of my classes. This next week is midterms, and though I have always thought of them as kind of pointless, I have three test this next week to prove that I have learned something. Well I hope I have at least. A few nights ago I was reading through my e-mail from the school, and noticed this announcement about the church history tour. : DI thought that would be really fun to go on, especially with the two religion teachers who are in charge of it. One of them was my church history teacher, and he knows so much about the history of the church, and he showed us some pictures he took of church history sites and I decided that someday I wanted to go and see all the church history sites. For someone who has never been east of Cody, Wyoming, the idea of going to the midwest is a bit daunting. So I thought, if I am going to go see the church history sites, I should do it with people who know what they are talking about, so I signed up for the church history tour at the end of this semester. The tour goes from March 25 through March 30. I don't really know much more on the details, but I am excited for it.
FHE is much improved over last semester, my FHE brothers this semester are much nicer and more willing to participate. It is definately on my top five favorite FHE groups.
I've got lots of stuff to do, so I had better get on it instead of procrastinating.

42 things about me

2009-02-02T19:02:00.004-07:00

1 WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? Memorie Evans Grant, or Grant Evans, I can never remember which name comes first.

2. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED? I don't remember, must have been a while ago.

3. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING ? Not usually

4. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT? Honey Turkey

5. DO YOU HAVE KIDS? Nope

6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU? I probably would, I can be pretty fun.

7. DO YOU USE SARCASM A LOT? Depends on who I'm talking to.

8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS? Yes.
9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP? Do I have to pay for it? If no then I probably would if I wasn't the first to go.

10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL? Frosted Shredded Wheat

11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF? Nah where's the fun in that?

12. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG? I used to be.

13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM? Vanilla, because you can add anything to vanilla and it still tastes good.

14. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE? Girls: Eyes and Hair color. Mouth and the direction it is going (ie are they going to have frown lines or laugh lines?)
Guys: Their build, (how broad their shoulders are, how tall they are, how wide their hips are, etc)

15. RED OR PINK? Red

16. WHAT IS THE LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF? I have to do everything so well, that when I am not immediately at least kinda good at something I want to give up.

17. WHOM DO YOU MISS THE MOST? Dani

18. WHAT COLOR PANTS AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING? Faded blue jeans, and no shoes.

19. WHAT WAS THE LAST THING YOU ATE? Triscuits, rosemary and olive oil, my favorite crackers!

20. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW? The furnace motor

21. IF YOU WHERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE? Periwinkle blue

22. FAVORITE SMELLS? Clean laundry-or even the smell of laundromats or laundy rooms that have doors so the soap smell gets caught, and when you open the door you think, mmmmmh laundry, Cookies,

23. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE? Megz

24. FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH? Figure skating and a good football game with lots of really cool runs and good sports.

25. HAIR COLOR? Blonde.

26. EYE COLOR? Blue.

27. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS? Yes

28. FAVORITE FOOD? Home made soup, or other wonderful things that I am to lazy to cook.

29. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS? Happy endings, but don't a lot of scary movies wind up with at least one person alive and therefore "happy" in the end?

30. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED? City of Ember

31. WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING? Blue

32. SUMMER OR WINTER?
Early Summer, June-ish. Can't wait.

33. HUGS OR KISSES?
Hugs

34. FAVORITE DESSERT? depends, Chocolate sounds really good, like brownies, or chocolate cake, and I don't even like cake,

35.. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW? erm.. do text books count? I am re-reading the Five Lessons a Millionaire taught me.

36. WHAT IS ON YOUR MOUSE PAD? A scratch and a spot that the pad is being worn down in the middle(it's a laptop)

37. WHAT DID YOU WATCH ON TV LAST NIGHT? The superbowl actually over at my FHE brother's house

38. FAVORITE SOUND? Silence or sprinklers durring the summer(the kind that go CHK CHK CHK)

39. ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES? erm... probably Beatles

40. WHAT IS THE FARTHEST YOU HAVE BEEN FROM HOME? Southern Cali?

41. Do YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT? Not that I can think of off the top of my head. Any suggestions?

42. WHERE WERE YOU BORN?
Driggs.

Random FWDS, Kinda interesting

2009-02-02T14:50:00.003-07:00

44 ODD Things about you! If you read this, copy it to your own blog and, FILL IT OUT! Learn 44 things about your friends, and let them learn 44 things about you! Send back to me and to several more friends !!
1. Do you like blue cheese? Yup

2. Have you ever smoked? Nope.

3. Do you own a gun? No.

4. What flavor Kool Aid was your favorite? Bery blast
5. Do you get nervous before doctor appointments? Not really
6. What do you think of hot dogs? No thanks

7. Favorite Christmas movie? Miracle on 34th street

8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning? Same as I prefer to drink the rest of the day OJ!

9. Do you do push ups? Not often

10. What's your favorite piece of jewelry? My egyptian cartush with hebrew writing on it from Israel. My mommy brought it back for me.

11. Favorite hobby? Reading, I've become a pretty big fan of yoga over the past few years, but I don't think that's a hobby.

12. Do you have A.D.D.? No
13. What's one trait you hate about yourself? I have to be the best so fast, and if I am not the best of really good really fast I want to give up.
14. Middle name? Sue
15. Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment. My gum is getting hard, I need to go to class, and my hair is tickling my face.

16. Name 3 drinks you regularly drink? Milk, water, OJ
17. Current worry? I have so much homework to do, and almost no motivation to do it.

18. Current hate right now? Not really a fan of sergers at the moment
19. Favorite place to be? On or in my bed
20. How did you bring in the New Year? Playing games with my family, and chels at home
21. Where would you like to go? Every where
22. Name three people who will complete this.???
23. Do you own slippers? Yes
24 What shirt are you wearing? Blue short sleeved
25. Do you like sleeping on satin sheets? I probably would, though if I recall right they are rather staticy(from childhood)

26. Can you whistle? Yes

27. Favorite color?Blue
28. Would you be a pirate? No I am to nice to be a pirate, i'd give every body their stuff back
29. What songs do you sing in the shower? whatever megs and chazz got into my head

30. Favorite Girl's name? Xiomara

31. Favorite Boy's name? Seth
32. What's in your pocket right now? Chapstick
33. Last thing that made you laugh? my roomies last night
35. Worst injury you ever had? Ran into a barbed wire fence on a four wheeler

36. Do you love where you live? Yeah

37. How many TVs do you have in your house? one
38. Who is your loudest friend? Chazz
39. Do you have any pets? Not here.

40. Does someone have a crush on you? I dunno, I'm rather dense when it comes to things like that

41. Your favorite book(s)? Oh where to start....

43. Favorite Sports Team? Do I have to have one? I like the ones that are good sports win or lose.
44. What song(s) do you want played at your funeral? I haven't given it much thought. A funeral seems so far away to me right now.

School and Car Drama

2009-01-15T21:17:00.003-07:00

Well this past week has been very fun. I have enjoyed all of my classes and am enjoying all of the classes that are in my schedule just for me. I love my water aerobics class, my World dance class is amazing and fun because everyone is learning and when we mess up you laugh and keep moving. My world religions class is absolutely facinating. I am learning so much about worship and finding christ in all religions. My nursing classes are my leas favorite classes of them all, which is sad seeing as this is my last semester in the nursing program.
So life here in Rexburg has been interesting with the whole no parking on the street thing. Where we usually park in the winter was full, so Alesa and the manager of what used to be Pine View(its now called the cedars) arranged to allow us to park over there. So I had been parked there for a few days, and called Alesa and said, hey do we need to pay to park here, do we need to get a thing to stick in the window or something, and she never called me back, and I lost track of time. So I came home today and was talking to my other roomie who also has a car, who said when she went to get in her car to go to work she had been booted. Of course she was quite livid. So she managed to talk the guy down to 20 to take the boot off, and she drove her car out of that lot and parked on the street. SO when Alesa came home we went and talked to her. She called the manager over there and we both went to get stickers to park over there. And I discovered that I too had been booted, so I called, and they headed over and I got the boot off for only 20, but being the vindictive person I can be I decided that I am going to park my car backwards with the tail end in the snowbank so the boot people have to get out of their nice and cozy cars to check on the sticker on the back bumper on my car. Its the small victories. The Manager over there said they are required to get out and check, and if they don't see the sticker then it comes out of their pockets, since they get payed by the boot. So put a boot on a car that is legally there, guess who made a big mistake.
and there is my Car drama.

Back.... again

2009-01-09T22:09:00.003-07:00

Well I finished my first week back in school. This could be a lot of fun, and a lot of work. I enjoyed all of my classes that I had so far, though I didn't have the classes that are just on Mon, Tues (which would be my nuring classes). I have Water Aerobics, Clothing construction, World Religions, World dance, and Old Testament. Those are just the ones I went to this week, next week I'll also add in my two Nursing classes, Nursing research, and Nursing leadership.
I'm excited for all my fun classes. I really only need the two nursing classes, Water Aerobics and OT, but to keep my scholarship I have to have 14 credits at least, and I want to take the others.
Besides when do I have the chance to take fun classes and learn all sorts of odd things? For example on thursday in my world dance class we learned the korobushka. It is a russian dance. Translated it means cute little circle dance.
It's been fun being back in School, learing, and meeting new people, and I am looking forward to the fun I'll have next week.

School is done!

2008-12-13T09:50:00.002-07:00

I have finished school, and now am at Sky and Lac's playing with Abi, holding Emmalyn and helping Lac. I finished classes on wednesday, cleaned on thursday, and then headed to Poci to be with my family. I am so happy to be done with classes, and am excited for christmas. I'm not sure it can get much better, 'cause I already have a new niece which has got to be the best christmas present ever.
I am of course thrilled to see all my family again, and am sooooo excited to see Dani when she comes up. I had better go so I can help Lac and Sky.

HEHEHE

2008-11-27T11:58:00.002-07:00

So happy news from the Allen house. I am pirating someone's internet. From a certain spot in the room above the garage I can connect to the internet! Yay. So I am sitting at Meg's computer to type in really quick an update. I am almost finished with school (Huray) and I made rolls and the turkey is smelling really good. And i am really excited for dinner. Which is an improvement becuase I havn't really had much of an appetite over the last few days.
I only have two more weeks till the end of school and there is a very likely possability that my apparment will have only four girls in it for the winter semester. (SIGH) that will be nice to have more space in the fridge.
I have finished my last test for one of my classes, and now I just have to attend for the sake of attending. I also have several more assignments left to do for my one nursing class, though I have pretty much finished up the other one.
It is time to give Megz back her computer, and go and help mom more with thanksgiving preparations.

Three more weeks...

2008-11-13T11:00:00.003-07:00

... of classes until the end of the semester. I am really looking forward to the end of this semester, first because Lacy is gonna have another baby and I am soo excited to go and visit them, help Lac, and play with my niece, and hold their new baby. Second I am so excited for the end of this semester because then I will get a new FHE group, its tollerable but I still think, I have so many more things to do, and I dread going to FHE, but once I'm there it's fine. I guess it is kinda like work in that respect. Third, because Christmas is coming! I love christmas, all the lights, the sounds, the cheerful(or not so cheerful) people. And of course fourth because in three more weeks(excluding the week we get off for thanksgiving) I'll be done with my hard classes for the semester, and I am sooooo tired of studying.
Today I have been 21 for a week. Last weekend I went home. I really went home becasue my license expired on the eleventh, and there was no way I was going to make it home to renew my license on the eleventh, so I renewed it on Friday. Then Sat we went and strung lights up on the front of the library, and I talked with my mom, and procrastinated homework that I should have done, and I got recipes for yummy goodies. Of course I also opened my birthday presents. I got new scriptures, and some yarrow. YAY.
This week seems to be going rather quickly. I can't believe it is thursday already, and I still have so much to do before next week. SIGH.
BUT only one more week until thanksgiving, and then only two more weeks of school after that. : )

What a weekend

2008-11-04T09:53:00.002-07:00

Well I finished all my test and most of my assignments and headed to Poci friday night. We spent the night there an then headed to boise to watch state early the next morning. More about state on the family blog. After state we got back into the car and headed back toward poci where we had left Jake and Zac to play with Sky, Lac and Abigail. We stopped for a late lunch at Prasai's in Twin Falls, which is one of the best Thai restraunts I have been to. I love everything, and everything is always good. Then we returned to Poci, where we played with Abi for a while and Lac, Mom and I went out. We hadd planned on going to costco, but they had just closed when we got there, so instead we went to JoAnnes. We looked at all the cute decorations they had, and I bought a couple of little scarecrow decorations for thanksgiving. They are so cute. I'll load a pic later. Then we came back to the 'burg and they dropped me off and then they headed home. We got to Rexburg about 11pm. Sunday was nice and relaxing, and then we started back into the week. And yet again I have so much to do and I don't want to start any of it yet.

Gahhhh!

2008-10-29T20:27:00.002-06:00

Well, today I took my first of three tests that I have to complete before Fridat night. Then after I finish them, I can go to State with my mom and dad. State is saturday. Hopefully I can get my test done on Friday before mom and dad leave IF. So a big skills like test for Nursing thursday, then on friday a patho physiology test. Then Saturday state XC in Boise, then back for church on sunday. Whew! I'd better stop procrastinating studying for that skills test.

OUCH!

2008-10-21T12:46:00.002-06:00

Lets see, I went to the public health clinic yesterday (as a patient), and got two shots, one in each arm. I got a flu shot and I decided I wanted to get the guardasil series. So I got the first in that series. My arms hurt to lift them up. And while the guardasil shot hurt more initially the arm that got the flu shot is definately hurting more now. And they hurt to put any pressure on them which is sad because I sleep on my side, so I didn't sleep well.
Yesterday at FHE was actually fun, for a change, we had the lesson, and then we actually sat there and joked around for a while like humans. It was fun, sorry Dan, no mission stories, though I'll try to remember next time. : )

THE FOLLOWING IS MEDICAL WHICH,OF COURSE OBVIOUSLY, I DON'T MIND SHARING, BUT IF YOU DON'T WANT TO READ IT DON'T!!!
Then today I went and saw the doctor, 1. because my YAZ is supposed to make it so my periods are at least less painful, and over the past seven months they have become more and more painful. Not quite up to the point that they were before the YAZ, but still, also I am kinda sick of being such a witch when I am on my period. I wind up staying in my room because everything (and everyone) anoys me! (not a good thing when living with 5 other people) : ( 2. I have been exercising more, and because I have I needed to refil my Albuterol Rx, and of course 3. I apparently have really high LDLs(bad cholesterol) which for a person my age is not a good thing. I also have high triglycerides but I have a good blood glucose and my HDLs(good cholesterol) are in the upper range of normal.
So I made an appointment to go and see someone at the healthcenter, 1 because they are open when I have time to see them, 2 they are on campus, and 3 chances are good that they are less expensive than other places. Also a bonus, because they are here at BYUI, and to be here I have to be following the honor code, and as I am single and not sexually active going there means I don't have to have another pap to get more BC. : )
TOday I went and saw her, she gave me a Rx for Nuvaring, for BC, hopefully this will help, and she renewed my Rx for Albuterol, and after discussing my diet for a while, she decided that my diet is not unhealthy, and decided there might be some genetic factors in the LDLs and triglycerides, so she gave me a low dose statin drug, with instructions to go back in three months to check and see if it is helping. The only thing that makes me concerned is that I may wind up taking statins for the rest of my life if it works.
I have had some more headaches, sensitive to light, and sometimes sensitive to sound, though I wonder if they aren't because I am in the middle of switching BC?
Better go so I can actually get something done today.

OCTOBER!

2008-10-15T18:10:00.003-06:00

Ok, so its the middle of October and I haven't posted anything for a while, but I don't know that I really have had much to post. Last weekend was Mother's weekend, and my mom came out Saturday and we went to some seminars in the morning, and then went out to lunch-Tai food, YUM-then we went shopping and mom bought some stuff for people and then that night we went to the International Culture Night, which was fun because some of the associations performed, including the poynesian and korean, which means all sorts of fun dances, and really loud drums. Megz has been driving my car to Teton to the Haunted Mill for work, with a group of other students that work there. If I had another year in Rexburg I might want to do that. I always liked working behind the scenes and knowing what all goes on.
I started the first part of my clinicals with public health. I got to give shots, which was kinda fun to do that again. I forget how much I miss working until I go to clinicals. Now I only have two more clinicals to go.
We are almost halfway through the semester which seems really strange to me because I feel as though school just started. It has been pretty crazy with my classes and tests etc.
I enjoy my calling, and since I last vented about my FHE brothers we got another one who is a recently returned missionary and seems more mature than the others who have been back for 2+ years. At least he is not distainful about FHE, and I don't dread going to FHE because I know he'll have a good attitude.
It was hillarious at our last FHE, we were at our ward clerk's house with another FHE group, and we were going around the circle introducing ourselves, and as part of introducing ourselves we told what we learned at the last general conference. It got around the circle to this one boy, and he started talking about what he learned in the priesthood session, he started talking about this one speaker who spoke about priesthood holders fulfilling their responsibilities no matter what they are, and then he recounted a story of a man who was working on the SLC temple. This man's family lived 22 miles from the temple to on friday night he would walk home, get home and spend the weekend working on his farm and with his family, on time while he was at home, he got injured and shattered the bones in his leg, which resulted in amputation. This brother continued to say, "and if I remember correctly he went on to invent the prostate...er prosthesis..." to which we all laughed of course and he jokingly made fun of his own slip of the toung by continuing, "prothesis, I'm sure his prostate was fine." I though this brother had great character in that he was able to make fun of his own blunder and make light of it instead of becoming embarrased as many people would have. I thought KUDOS to you sir for having the character to continue on and make light of an awkward situation.
So that is my story for this week, I should go study for my Patho-phys test so I can make it to the XC race this Friday afternoon.

New Calling!

2008-09-29T21:21:00.000-06:00

Yeay, I finally have a calling! I am an extractor for my stake. I get to read really old census records that have been scanned onto the computer and then I type the names down. It is part of the process of geneology work as well as it gets the temples names(after a few more steps that I don't have anything to do with). Allthough, some of the names are strangly written so it takes a bit of guess work to figure some of them out. Others are a piece of cake. So sunday I learned how to do it, and got my log in id and password and all that, though I do have to say I need more patience because I was getting a bit frustrated with the elderly man who taught me and logged me on. I think I might need to slow down, and enjoy the sceneery more.
I am in a new ward, I don't know if I mentioned that, and so I have a new FHE family. I am not impressed. First of all none of our brothers want to be there, just because they don't want to be there, also they all(except one) have the mentality of high-schoolers, today I thought they were going to actually make fun of one of my more exuberant roommates and I was afraid they might have gotten mauled by at least six very angry females. It is one thing to not want to go because you don't want to go, but quite another to not want to go because you dread the experience of meeting with your FHE brothers and dealing with their emotionally draining distainful attitudes not only toward the institution of FHE, but also toward all of the people there. Grrrrr. But I am being good and I go, and at least pretend that I enjoy it, and then when it is time to go I can leave and feel no obligation to stay and "hang out" or any such thing.
I believe it is about time for me to get back to my homework. Sorry about the rant on FHE.

Back to School

2008-09-13T16:23:00.000-06:00

I have returned to school!!! I have 17 credits this semester so I may not post much. I have the feeling that my pathophys class is going to be quite time consuming. After the first week of classes I believe the rest of my classes shouldn't be quite as bad. I mean I'll have tests and such, but I have the feeling this patho class will have me studying as much as I did for my nursing classes (gasp) I know sooo much studying. (note: nursing classes required 8-12 hours of studying outside class per test) I have a good ward this semester. No calling yet, though that probably has something to do with the fact that my the relief society president (who happens to be my roomie) was just called and has not yet told the bishop who she would like to have as her counselors. So no other RS callings have been filled either. We'll see what I'll be doing this year.
Yesterday I went to IF to see Ben run, and I took Megz with me. She was at first sceptical when I said that XC was the best sport even if running isn't your favorite past-time, but after talking to my mom, and hearing the XC story from the last race then watching the race and of course cheering Ben on, she believed me. She actually said that the energy was what was so great about it. Everyone has this great energy.

STORY
OK this actually could go on the family blog, but I remember it now so I'll just post it here
At the star valley race after the team had rested a bit, the boys were looking around and couldn't find one of their teamates. He hadn't crossed the finish line yet, so all the boys team went back out to the course and ran well over half of the course again running in this teamate. He is generally slower than the rest, but the whole boys team was out there cheering him on and running again. After you give your all to a race, running is not the first thing you would normally think about but because there was one of their teammates missing they went out and brought him back in. It was a great story. Mom said she and my aunt were almost in tears watching it. AHHHH.

Grrrr

2008-09-05T12:48:00.000-06:00

Greetings from Victor. Yes I have returned home, briefly. Though it was quite the obnoxious time to get here. Tuesday we(My roommate and I) planned to come up in the morning so I could help dad a little bit on the farm in the after noon, but my car wouldn't start. So after thinking, well maybe its the battery and having one of my FHE brothers come over and try to jump it, we decided that wasn't it, so of course I called my dad, and he said, Uncle Doyle was comming out to get grandma's eyes checked, and that he would stop by and see if he could help. He came, and said,"I dunno what's wrong with it." and towed me to a repair shop where we left the Jimmy and rode back to Victor with Grandma, Uncle Doyle and Esther. Wednesday we gave blood, all of us old enough except Ben, 'cause he's in XC and coach would get mad at him. Then I went and moved a line of pipe out of the way of the swather(that was exhausting with 1 pint less blood than usual). Then I went to back to school night for mom, 'cause she was at round table. Whooo, thursday I went on the swather. The old one. After fixing guards and sectoins several times I finally shut down when one of the sections on the knife head broke and was making it difficult to cut the all ready heavy and leaning hay. Dad and Uncle Gayle hauled the entire knife out of the header, and the goal is to replace the rivets with bolts so the sections are easier to replace next time. Today I woke up, sore and stiff, and after a little bit of moving around I finally got so it didn't hurt quite so bad. Then I packed up and got readyu to head back to Rexburg, 'cause we intend to head back with Uncle Gayle when he goes back. Though he was out on the swather first thing after they fixed it this morning and mom had us go and wash and vaccum her car while we waited for Uncle Gayle to decide he is ready to go home.

Another update

2008-08-04T10:12:00.000-06:00

Well I came back to rexburg a week ago saturday, then on monday mom, the boys(Jake and Zac) and I went to the street dance festival then we went to rigby lake to camp and play in the water. The boys liked playing in the water whenever they wanted to. We spent about five hours of tuesday by the lake, and poor mom got sooo burned. Then we went to rexburg and saw a movie. Wednesday we packed up camp and then we played in the water for a couple of hours. The wind was blowing so it was not so comfortable for anyone who was not actively playing in the water who was at all wet. We all sunscreened up again, but even though I sunscreened up I burned my back and shoulders. Grrr. Then we came back to the 'burg and ate at Original Thai! YUMMMY! Even my little brothers loved it. Well then I came back to my appartment and cleaned up my room a little and my appartment a little, and went to the library and got some books. Yeay! I am reading something besides textbooks again, and not for a class either. I also went to IF on friday to get food, and while there megz and I went to Michaels and picked up some cross-stitch fabric and threads for me and some chain and sculpey for her. We discovered that my hobby is less expensive than hers. : ) (which doesn't really surprise me). So I started a new cross-stitch. On Friday our bathroom was also torn apart , the flooring ripped up (it was kinda gross as it was starting to grow mold underneath it) the floor cleaned and new flooring layed down. It is a way cool looking tile/lynolium. And then they(my landlady & children) painted the walls changing them from a strange off white to a more tan color. They also discovered that the only thing holding the toilet down was glue. It wasn't even bolted to the floor. So they went and got a device that would bolt the toilet down. Lucky for all of us the glue was holding the toilet down really well. Anyway so now we have a toilet and freshly paintedd walls and they are supposed to put the sink back into the bathroom today. But the bathroom looks a lot more welcoming. Unfortunately for all those in my appartment who are adverse to cleaning when our landlady came down she saw what a mess the appartment and the rooms were and decided to do a cleancheck on tuesday (the first one I've had in the middle of the semester since I came back to school). I had better get going on cleaning as there are only four of us and the appartment is divided into six jobs so I am one of the ones who gets to pull double duty.

Back to the burg

2008-07-26T17:28:00.000-06:00

Well, I finished school last thursday, did my clean check friday and then headed to IF to see Mom, Dani and Lac. Dani and Mom were there for Sheena's wedding, and Lac met us to get a girls picture while dani was here. Then we went to Poci to go to Sheena's reception and then we went to dinner together, and we came back to IF, and I drove back to the 'burg and picked up Anita. By that time I had an awful headache and I was way tired as it was around 1130ish and driving makes me tired, anyway Anita drove us home with me coaching her, and we got home around one, unloaded Anita's suitcase and went to sleep. I played with Dani, and mom all weekend and then on tuesday I drove Anita back to the 'burg so she could catch her shuttle to SLC and then fly home. I unpacked my bags from home, and repacked them and headed to Poci to play with my niece and Sky and Lac. Poor Abi wasn't feeling well for a lot of the time I was there, so she was fussy, emotional and clingy, which as long as she didn't burst into tears when I spoke to her I was OK with though I felt bad for her. She had a fever for several of the days and then on saturday we went yardsaling and she was way fussy and when we got back into the car Lac noticed she had spots all over. The poor kid got chicken pox from her vaccines. At least it is a weakend version. Oh well, I'll have to try and visit again, hopefully next time she won't be sick.

Another week

2008-07-12T22:17:00.000-06:00

Well this past week has flown by at the same time feeling as though ig was creeping. I have been working hard to get all my little homework assignments done before they were due yesterday and next week. Whew I am almost done with this semester. Last day is next friday, then I get to go home and see my family and Dani.
Well, Thursday mom and dad came out to go to "The Savior of the World" with me. It was a stage play/musical put on my the school. It was awesome. I always forget how much I miss being involved in drama until I go and see a play. : ( Also this evening Megz and I went to a Jon Schmit concert. It was way fun. I love to hear the piano. If you don't know who I am talking about this is the guy who wrote All of Me, the piece where you use your forarm at part of the song. Anyway that was a blast. He called this guy up from the audience to improv some blues/jazz on the piano, and the kid just about played faster than he did. It was way impressive.
Anyway, I had better go to bed, tomorrows already shaping out to be a pretty big day.

4th weekend

2008-07-05T21:52:00.000-06:00

I went home thursday to help mom haul books out of the basement of the library, but by the time I got there they were all done. Oh well I helped the next day, morning and afternoon, then I was exausted! : ) Saturday Sky and Lac came up to Victor for a few hours. Abi was so cute! We are down to four kittens and she would toddle over to about a foot from where they were laying and crouch down and say "Kiyee" then point and say "Kiyee" she would smile, but she never moved any closer to the kittens, but if the kittens moved closer to her she didn't move back. It was so cute.

2008-06-29T19:19:00.001-06:00

Oh, and I forgot to mention that on the way home thursday there was this most awesome sunset. See the beautiful pic that I got as the sun was just finishing setting.

Farm

2008-06-29T17:10:00.000-06:00

I went home to help dad this past weekend. I got there thursday night, and went to work around 9am the next morning. I swathed the 40, then just after I finished the last swath, I picked up my header and turned to strattle the winrows at the bottom so I could park the swather and go home to get some lunch, I turned the wheel, something popped, and suddenly I was turning counter closkwise and making myself dizzy. I pulled the speed to N and the throttle down to turtle but I was still turning circles and no matter which way I turned the wheel I still turned counter clockwise. I waited for a few seconds, but the swather wasn't slowing down, and I was starting to get sick, so I turned off the ignition, and the swather slowed down, and then stopped.

SO the steering went out, a whole thing about this metal pole thingy that really is difficult to describe, but I'll try. the pipe/pole was a little smaller than a stand pipe, and at each end it had a bolt that was attached to the pole with a ball and socket. The bolts faced opposite directions so when the one on the right faced up, the other one faced down. This meant that the socket toward the front faced up and the one toward the back faced down. When it broke the bolt/ball on the front fell out of the socket. Daddy fixed it by flipping it end for end, so the pressure from the pole would hold the ball into the socket.

Back to work I went, to swath a new piece, just behind the storage sheds on cedron road. It is in line for construction, but that may not happen for a while, so even though the piece hadn't been watered for two+ years and hadn't been planted for more, I was instructed to cut it. It was the roughest piece of ground I have ever swathed. It was like driving across an endless road of potholes for the entire about 9 hours it took to cut the piece. By the time I finished for the night (I still had 2 1/2 hours left to cut the next day) I was so sore I had a hard time picking up my own shoes off the floor. The muscles along my spine felt (actually still feel) like rocks.

The next day I returned to the torture, finished the piece in time for lunch(it was plugged so we had to unplug it before we could start running it). After lunch I resumed swathing on Arnolds, then moved to Myers'. About 1/3 across the field, I was on my way back down to the bottom, when all of a sudden the swather started bouncing and making really funny noises. Again, I turned the speed to N and the throttle to turtle. This time the swather stopped, but it was still making funny noises, so I turned off the ignition, and called dad. I left a message on his voice mail that went something like "I broke it. Call me back."

It was the steering thing again, and this time the entire ball and bolt was gone. No more swather for Me this weekend. I then went home, talked with mom for a while, then she got called to work, and I went and got milk, and went and talked to Esther, and helped her care for Mel's kids, and then I decided it was to late to come back, so I just stayed the night there, and drove back this morning. What an adventure.

Tagged

2008-06-25T16:18:00.000-06:00

So I was tagged

20 things that make me smile

20 Music
19 Disney movies
18 My crazy roomie Megan
17 My FHE bros
16 Tangents
15 Abi
14 Dani
13 Mom
12 The Big Bang Theory
11 Free food-that i don't cook
10 Ice cream
9 Getting done with homework
8 Camp fires
7 Candles
6 A good book
5 A good night's rest
4 Comprehension of difficult concepts- it just clicks
3 Clean clothes
2 Rain
1 Watching lightening from the safety of a building

Now I tag Megz... that's all that I know on Blog spot that haven't already been tagged.

FHE!

2008-06-23T21:14:00.000-06:00

Yet another fabulous FHE has come and gone. We had a water baloon fest. We had a blast filling up water baloons, then we launched them (using a water ballon launcher) at a group and saw who could catch them and where they got hit. Then we filled up more water baloons, soaking each other in the process. It kinda reminded me of our Allen family soakings. Anyway we ate cake to celebrate one of our FHE brother's birthday that is tomorrow, then tossed the baloons back and forth and saw how far away we could be and still catch them, not very far, then we wound up just throwing them at each other. And then we were out of baloons again so we went and filled up more, and then launched them at the group and we had fun trying to break the fast moving water balloons on our bodies, heads, chests, butts, backs etc. We had a BLAST! Megz again brought her camera and when she gets a chance she said she would again post the pics on her page.

2008-06-18T14:02:00.001-06:00

Alright, so monday night I had one of the most fun FHEs I have ever had. We went to our high councilman's house and his wife just so happens to be the relief society advisor. They not only fed us, but they let us ride their horses too. I had a blast laughing and jokng with my FHE family. Then on the car ride back I discovered that my FHE brothers have seen alot of the strange video clips I've seen online. It was really funny. I also discovered that they all have a penchant for quoting disney movies. : )
My roomie hauled along her camera, and she has posted pics on her blog (see link -megs). They are pretty fun.

2008-06-06T12:30:00.001-06:00

Well the weeks have flown by. Homework and procrastinating have made my days quite full. Perhaps it is time to feed the brain and take a break from reports?

2008-05-12T22:18:00.000-06:00

This past week I was reminded of a valuable truth. We are all born, we live, and we die. Death is as much a part of the life cycle as birth. And though we look joyously on birth, perhaps we also need to look joyously on death, as that means another step of the life cycle has been completed, and another cycle can start. Now that is not to say we should not cry, or be sad, for those that we love are gone. However, sorrow should be felt that they will no longer walk with us, not that they will no longer live. I believe they will live, in another way, and still be able to learn and grow and become greater than they could be while being held back by mortallity. Indeed, I suppose that when the time comes for me to die, I would like those I leave behind to feel sorrow that I am no longer here, but rejoice that I once was, and that I will be again. Rejoice that someday they too will be able to be with me again. So while death is a sorrowful occasion, as it should be, I believe we should also be able to celebrate the life they had, and the life that we have because of them.

2008-04-23T19:37:00.000-06:00

So I have a wonderful new blog, mostly cause I wanted the really cool playlist thingy. Lets see I started the bachelors nursing program, and so far this week I have discovered why so many people think college is fun. When you have time to play, it is indeed fun. The ADN program was soooo time consuming, but I think the BSN will be alright. The other day I walked to a local formal wear store to pick up my little brother's bowtie for prom. FUSIA!!! The thing is so bright it hurts my eyes to even look at it. Hope it gets toned down by his black shirt and coat. I'll be taking it home friday morning, because he haas Prom friday night.