Ashley's Mission Email #24

Happy New Year!

Hey guys! 

It was SO good to get to talk to you this week. I'm so glad we get to use Skype. Sounds like your Christmas was great! For Christmas Eve and Christmas day unfortunately no one really wants to meet with us so we went caroling. Well we contacted using hymns. People are much more receptive when you sing to them for some reason. 

I got the package. And a bunch of Christmas letters. Thank you SO much!! I love the little pictures and the clothes and everything. Did you guys send out a Christmas card this year? I'd like to see it if you did:)

Well this week Valentin received the Priesthood. He came to church in bright mustard yellow pants and a yellow tie. But that’s a step up from the neon shoes with his jeans that he used to wear. Haha. He's doing great.

This week is New Year’s which means more partying in the streets and less time that we are allowed outside...but you make do with what you have. We're going to do a food exchange for our zone meeting this week! Food from all the different countries!

Well I hope you guys are sharing the gospel, giving references to the missionaries, helping in fellow shipping the investigators, asking for ways you can help them out. 

Love you guys lots.

Love

Hermana Allen

(Pics not woking. Next week I’ll try to use a different computer.) 

Ashley on Skype. A Happy Christmas day at our house!

Ashley's Mission Email #23

Feliz Navidad! Venid y Adoremos!

So I'll be kind of quick this week but wow, it’s been a great week! 
I got my baby girl! Hermana Garcia from Honduras. She's adorable and is willing to learn so I'm excited to be her trainer. I still feel so inadequate but oh well, things work out.

We had Valentin's baptism on Saturday! I am so happy for him. He showed up almost an hour late because he came staight from work. He had white paint in his hair and all over his arms. But he just looked so happy and at peace. He is a completely different person now all thanks to the Gospel. He tried to give us a hug afterward and we had to dodge him a little. It was pretty funny. Oh Valentin.

I hope you all have a fabulous Christmas! We'll be here caroling because nobody wants to let the missionaries in on Christmas, but the work never stops! Haha!

Love you all.
Hermana Allen

Fotos aren’t working. I'll send them next week...

Ashley's Mission Email #22

Jesucristo vive.

This week...well it pretty much flew by! I´m loving studying about Jesucristo and trying to grow closer to Him. Really it´s a topic that never gets old. This morning I read, Examina la Senda de Tus Pies (The talk by Pres Monson from this conference.) I dont know what it’s called in English but try to find it, it’s a good one! 

There was a bell choir this week that we brought Desiree to. It was a bunch  of youth from the stake and it was really good. We also have the Ward Christmas activity this week where our little ballet class is going to perform. I´m so excited for them!

Yesterday in sacrament Angel, one of the young men in the ward, shared an experience that he had when he was teaching with us. He said how when one person isn´t ready for the gospel, the Lord always puts someone else in our path. It was an awesome reminder of why we are here. I´m super impressed with the youth and how strong they are. He´s only about 15 and neither of his parents come to church but him and his little brother are there every week and always super happy too! 

Well I hope you are all sharing the video He is the Gift with everyone you know! It’s a good one. 

Love you guys.

Love 

Hermana Allen

Us at the Bell Choir.

Just us.

One of the 3 chickens that like to roam the street outside our apartment.

This was saying goodbye to Hermana Given…. well at least as my comp. I still get to see her sometimes.

Ashley's Mission Email #21

El es la Dadiva!

So there´s this initiative that I hope you´ve heard about already but if not well…it's called El es la Dadiva or He is the Gift. It’s a video about Jesus Christ and its AMAZING. Every time I see it I get goosebumps. Anyway, you should all watch it and then share it on facebook. (Could you maybe put that one on my Facebook?) Anyway it’s going on throughout Diciembre to get people thinking about the real meaning of Christmas and to get people interested in the church. It’s so awesome. Go look it up when you can! We contacted 2 people using the invite and they each gave us 1 or 2 references right there. We also talked to these 2 guys who only spoke English and I was so surprised at how hard it was to contact them in English. I really struggled but I guess that’s a good sign! 

I heard an Elder the other day say that for his last Christmas in the field he tried focusing more in Christ and it was the best Christmas he´s ever had. He said he wasn’t homesick, he was happier than ever and he just wanted to share that with everyone so…I’ve decided to focus my study in Christ this month, reading a chapter of Luke everyday starting today! (There are 24 chapters so that leads right up to Christmas!) I recommend focusing more in Christ this Christmas and especially in sharing your testimony of Him with others. I´m sure that’s what He would ask for for Christmas if He was on the earth.

Thanksgiving was awesome! We even had cranberry sauce! I love the Diaz family, they really are too good to us.

Thanksgiving with President and Hermana Corbitt, President and Hermana Diaz, the assistants, Hermana Given and Beltran and mis companeras!

This ones for you Lolo. (There was a birthday and her fav color was pink but the Elders couldn't find pink balloons so they wrote things like this on them.)

Ashley's Mission Email #20

Ve Tus Bendiciones!

Thanksgiving! I´ve decided how perfect this holiday is. Even if they don´t celebrate it here. We get to remember all the things we´re thankful for in preparation to think about the biggest blessing of all...our SAVIOR. Anyways, we have a thanksgiving dinner planned with the familia Diaz. They are so awesome putting on a dinner for us Americans! And they´re friends with Presidente Corbitt so him and Sister Corbitt will be there too. 

So Valentin! He´s a totally different person. Yesterday he asked what he should tell his friends in the streets when they ask him why he´s joining this church. He told us that he tells them because he knows the Book of Mormon is true and that the church is true. We were like, thats perfect! Your testimony is one of the absolute best ways to share the Gospel. He said he was planning on inviting them to read the folletos. His baptism is right after transfers so we´ll see if I´m still here to see that, but even if not, I´m excited for him!

Our little ballet class is going great! I´m so proud of the little girls. We´re going to do a little presentation during the ward Christmas activity so that parents and friends can come see and can be here to enjoy the rest of the activity. 

So challenge for this week...invite friends to church. We´re leading up to the Christmas season.  (At least around here, you´d think Christmas was next week with all the lights and trees.) There is no better way to celebrate than to learn more about Christ and His Atonement. We can do that by taking la santa cena every week! How special!

I KNOW MY SAVIOR LIVES. He is my Best Friend and Redeemer and I love having this opportunity to share that with others.

Love you all!

Hermana Allen

Christmas in the Church. El arbol de Navidad!

Ashley's Email #19

Preacher's in the Streets!

So this week I attended my first leadership meeting. Well I spied on my first leadership meeting.... I'm not a leader but my comps are so I was there too, obviously. It was actually really fun! I learned a lot and got a lot of ideas on how to make my teaching better and how to be a better missionary in general. Pres Corbitt is like the best mission president ever. Seriously, all his ideas are inspired.

Also one night this week we were walking to an appointment and there were these huge speakers set up on a street corner and these preachers were just preachin really loudly and saying how everyone needed  to come to God. And there were people on each side of the street waving their bibles in the air and there were these teenagers in costumes doing this dance. It was all pretty exciting stuff. This country is full on Christians. thats for sure. It’s wonderful that they have such a strong basis because then we are here to build on that and show them that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is restored. 

We set some baptism dates this week! One with Valentin. he is about 20 something years old and was a little bit of a crazy guy but he's really changing. It’s amazing what the gospel does. We gave him a calender so that he could track his progression towards baptism and so he wrote the resurrection of Valentin on his date. Haha 

I am SO happy for Tricia and her family! That is sooooo exciting! I wish I could be there, but please send pictures.

So the power went out last week before I sent pictures but here are some new and old pictures.

Love you all!

Love,

Hermana Allen

Ashley's former companion, Hermana Given. Ashley's new companions, Hermana Goff and Hermana Munoz.

Ashley's Email #18

My New Comps!

Hola!

So I am now in another trio with Hna. Munoz and Goff, the sister training leaders. We´re not sure how permanent it is but 

I´m learning lots from them. Hna Munoz is from Costa Rica and Hna Goff is from Gilbert. Special transfers will probably be coming sometime soon, but for now, here we are :)

So this week has started to be a little more normal. Not really because for right now, we have 1 companionship covering 2 areas and we´re still sorting out our time and how we are going to help our investigators in both areas. But the ward members are stepping up and helping out. So many times this week, we´ve called a member to cover an appointment for us and they do! Gladly. They go over and pretty much teach a lesson for us. Its awesome! It just shows that this is the work of the members and the missionaries are here to help out. Not the other way around.

So I want to tell you about a family that we are teaching. The familia Urena. there´s the mom the dad and 3 little girls. They are awesome! The 3 girls come to our ballet class every week and ask me about it every other time we see them. One of them told us the other day that she wants to be an Hermana when she grows up so she can teach others about Christ. The mom told us about this dream she had after she had been praying about if this was the right church. In the dream she walked in to our church building and apparently we were standing there welcoming her. It was so neat. (People here really believe in dreams as revelation...) So they are working on their papers so that they can be married and then baptized! I love them.

Well it's great to hear from you all! I hope everything is going well. Until next week!

Love

Hermana Allen

Ashley's Mission Email #17

It’s a good thing I like surprises!

I think we broke some sort of record this week with the number of comp divisions and intercambios. We had about 4 between Monday and Wednesday because someone was always a little sick. But then Thursday Hna Martinez started having lung problems again (that was why she came back here from Mexico). Well we ended up in the Assistants car on the way to the hospital. They told her she had to stay the night so Hna Given stayed while the Assistentes took me back. (Another intercambio but I promise I had Presidents permission for that one...) Well fast forward to translados which actually happen tomorrow. Hna Given is leaving to be Sister Training Leader somewhere else. Hna Goff and Munoz are staying the same and Hna Martinez would be my comp, but they have decided that she will be going home. So for now I am in a companionship with Hermana Liders. Super complicated I know, but like I said... CRAZY week.

Anyway in the middle of this all I´ve just learned how much God has His hand in everything. Somehow I have been really calm in a situation where I would normally not be. Also the work is still progressing even though we now have 1 trio companionship and 2 areas to cover. (Which really is only working because the ward members are stepping up and helping us teach our investigators, sometimes when we can´t even make it to the appointment!) Heavenly Father´s work will not stop. It´s our choice to help it along or not, because it´s us that will be changed from the experience. 

Anyway, Love you all!

Love 

Hermana Allen

Emergency Room Fun!

Service Project!

I gave in and got a bum bag! These things are like giant fanny packs. All style has gone out the window... Haha, but it's comfy!

Ashley's Mission Email #16

The 3 Musketeers!

Hermana Given and I have a new companion now! Her name is Hermana Martinez and she´s Dominican, from Santiago. She has been serving the past 13 months in Mexico but has to finish out here because of some lung problems. She´s a great missionary though and I think we will learn lots from her, well in this week that we have before transfers... I´m not going to lie, trios are hard! Just because there´s lots of ideas and lots of switching back and forth in lessons but we´re making it work.

This is my last week of training! Ahh! That´s a little scary, but I´m excited too! 

We had Stake Conference this week and Elder Zivic of the Area Seventy was there. It was really good! A lot about how this is one work, one gospel and how we need to work together with members, missionaries, less actives, youth, investigators, everyone! A scripture that I love that I think describes missionary work really well is Alma 29:8-10. keep on finding people to share the message with. Try to be trustworthy instruments in God´s hands. One´s that He can use at any time, in any place, with any person because He knows He can trust you to follow His guidance. (Hope that makes some kind of sense...)

Well it’s been another exciting week here in the DR with crazy drivers, loud music, more and more Christmas lights every day, smelly trash cans, lots and lots of sun and sweat, but most importantly, lots of people to share this wonderful gospel with. Hope you´re all doing well! Until next week!

Love

Hermana Allen

The Fantastic Three!

Pancakes in a mug was our greatest idea yet...

Ashley's Mission Email #15

Christmas Time Is Here!

Hey!

Dominicans love to party and find any excuse to throw parties and dance in the streets and blast the music on every corner so Christmas comes around pretty early. There are tons of houses already with Christmas lights up and the chapel already has the tree up and decorated! Yet it’s still hotter than ever...definitelty does NOT feel like Christmas time.

So we´ve had some exciting adventures this week! Some of them I´ll have to share at a later time. On Wednesday was Hna Given´s halfway mark! We found this grocery store that has a bunch of American foods. It’s kind of like a Safeway. Anyway we bought a cheesecake box mix and made that. So good! We also found gravy and cranberry sauce cans. (We plan to eat it Romney style straight from the can!)

We also had interviews with Presidente Corbitt on Saturday and those are ALWAYS great.. he is a fantastic mission president and I wouldn´t be surprised if he becomes a general authority someday. I always learn so much and am so inspired after we have meetings with him. He wanted me to tell you all that he says hi too! 

Some other things that you can only find in the Dominican Republic…

If you have a broom, you can do anything. They sweep EVERYTHING. They sweep water, they sweep the gutters outside their houses. The other day we were walking on a dirt road and some guy was outside sweeping the dirt. Not reallly sure why. The only cleaning supplies I´ve ever seen here are a broom and a mop. (Which you always wring out with your hands by the way. That took some getting used to.)

A game of dominoes on every street corner. Everyone is always outside because it’s so hot and it gets even hotter inside. So there are always little game tables with people playing dominoes all over the place.

Well I still love this place despite its craziness! The work is progressing. The hardest part is trying to teach families, but the parents aren´t married because they have no money. That´s probably the biggest obstacle in the work, because that process takes a while. But Heavenly Father works miracles, so it´s possible to overcome.

I hope you all have a great week! Sorry my thoughts are all over the place. The Spanish must be messing things up. Haha but I love you guys!

Love 

Hermana Allen

Cheesecake!

Our feet were getting a little too gross, entonces... Spa Day

Just a Bunch of Birds

Ashley's Mission Email #14

Nuestro Padre Celestial nos ama.

Hey everyone!

This week I´ve been thinking a lot about how our Heavenly Father knows us of each individually. He is perfect. He is our Supreme Creator and the God of all things but somehow we can and are commanded to pray to Him. And the awesome part is that when we pray to Him, it’s not just words that we hope will make some sort of difference. No. He is listening. We are given the opportunity to form a one on one relationship with our Heavenly Father. That´s so cool and so special! It´s really neat to watch investigators actually talk out loud in a prayer to God, sometimes for the first time in voz alta or out loud. 

This week has been good as usual! One thing that´s been great is that we´ve been taking the youth out to teach with us more. There´s one young man about 14 years old, Angel. His mom is less active and his step dad isn’t a member. Angel is such a great missionary though. He asks us questions about how to teach the importance of the Book of Mormon to his step dad and what scriptures would be good to share with him. While we were walking with him on our way to an appointment he asked if we did that thing where we knocked on doors. We were like, contacts? Of course! You want to try one? He was a little nervous at first, but after the first couple, he was a natural. The youth are so prepared and ready to share the gospel! It’s awesome!

Anyway, I love and miss you all. Thanks for the emails! Remember that you can share the gospel in so many different, simple ways.

Love

Hermana Allen

We matched! :) (Hermana Munoz)

Just a stroll through the park...

Homemade Costa Vida Salads.

Ashley's Mission Email #13

Contacting everywhere. Even in the trash piles. 

Hey everyone! So I hit my 3 month mark and that seems so crazy. The time FLIES. I still feel new. I´m not sure that´s going to change though. 

So crazy story. This week Hna Given and I were walking to Stefany´s house (a 12 year old investigator with a crazy strong testimony. Her parents won’t give her permission to be baptized though... we´re working on that.) So here in the DR they have certain streets that have 4 or 5 big dumpster trash cans and then usually mountains of trash all around them. Well on the way to her house there´s one of these streets. There was a guy digging through the trash (that´s not very unusual) and we saw him pull out this nice framed picture. Hna Given was like, that´s the first presidency! So we went over and asked him if he knew who that picture was of. He said no. We told him that it was a picture of the prophet of God and that he would be speaking to us this weekend. The guy told us that he had been baptized into the church but hadn´t been in forever. Hna Given was like, you are a member and you don´t know who that picture is of? You´ve got to go to General Conference! So he said he would. He doesn´t live in our area but we really hope he went. Then he shook our hands (remember he had just been digging through the trash) and we walked away. Thank goodness for hand sanitizer.

Conference was AMAZING! We were able to watch it in English! But I think it´s awesome how they have speakers in their native languages now. We were translating the English subtitles back into Spanish for some of them. That was fun. also, Elder Martinez (one of the Sunday speakers who gave his talk in Spanish) visited the CCM while I was there and did a mission tour later so I´ve met him and his wife and they are so awesome! They´re from Puerto Rico.

I learned so many things from conference that I felt a little overwhelmed with what to do with all the information. I had an idea though. one of the questions that Pres. Corbitt asked me in my interview when I first got here was where I want to be when we have our closing interview. I´ve thought about that a lot and decided to create a little personal project. I´m calling it “My End Result".  kind of silly I know but I´m writing out a description of how I want to be when I leave here then I´m picking parts to work on and specific ways to develop these attributes. I hope it will help me to be a better missionary now and to learn how to continuously improve as a person, even after this precious 18 months.

Another short story...in mission prep we did these speed role plays and one was to take 2 objects, a Gospel principle and make a lesson out of it. Well I was telling Hna Given about the practice Jade and I did. We had the cream of an Oreo, the cookie of the Oreo and the Plan of Salvation. I told Hna Given how the cream was like our time on earth, the cookies like before and after and how its only complete with all 3. We laughed and stuff but then we were in a lesson, teaching the plan of salvation and she says "it´s kind of like an Oreo, Hermana Allen, you want to explain?" That was fun, explaining that in Spanish but I think I´m going to have to find a way to get back at her for that one.

Well I love you all and hope you have a great week! Remember what you learned from Conference. Keep sharing the Gospel. Choose the right. All that good stuff!! 

Love,

Hermana Allen

Our Zone During General Conference

We love our Go Go Squeeze.

Walking Down a Nice Street in the Dominican Republic

We Rearranged the Living Room

We're down to 2 fans now. (It's really sad when they break.)

American Food for My 3 Month Mark

The Only True Church

Forever 21 Models Missionary Style. (When none of us are wearing our own clothes.)

Ashley's Mission Email #12

Hey Everyone!

So this week I got my new missionary mom, Hermana Given. She´s super cute and super fun. She´s from Colorado. Castle Rock actually. It’s a change to switch trainers in the middle of my training but its also really good, I think. I get to see different styles and what I like and don’t and learn what kind of missionary I want to be personally. The only problem is that I have to teach her the area and I´m already so bad with directions, but so far we haven´t gotten lost, so that´s a blessing.

How did you all like the Women´s Conference? We watched it last night instead of Saturday because of the time difference. But luckily me and my companion and 2 other sisters got to watch it on a computer in English. Regardless of the fact that I´m not fluent yet, it’s still just nice to actually hear the voices of the speakers. We´re hoping we can do the same for General Conference next week.  But if not, that´ll be a neat experience! I think I have Gospel vocabulary down well enough that I´ll still be able to learn a lot. Plus, the Holy Ghost is the best teacher.

This week we had a big Stake Family History activity that was really fun. We had quite a few investigators there which was the goal, so that´s great! I wish I would have worked more with family history before. Because the church is so new here, this is kind of the first generation of kids who are born into the church. That makes it really special for them to be able to find names of close family members and take the names to the temple. (The temple is about 45 minutes in a taxi from my area right now and the members are so great at going EVERY single week. Most members work in the temple too.)

Well I still love this calling, this place, these people, everything. Lots of crazy experiences that I wish I had time to share. All in all, I know I´m here for a reason and every day I´m glad I made this choice. It´s changing me and it´s awesome. This church is so true. It´s the only church with the fullness of the gospel. We don´t say that to make it exclusive. We say that to give every single person we can the opportunity to join and know of their divine nature and divine potential. I love you all. Thank you for all the support, whether by email or prayer or anything. Thanks :) 

Con Amor,

Hermana Allen

With President Diaz (the Stake President) and his wife, Marta.

Amarily (one of the more recent converts) at Women's Conference

Me and Hermana Given at the Actividad de Historia Familiar

Ashley's Mission Email #11

Buenas!

An earth tremor? Nope. We didn’t feel anything here. 

I did get the package though! Thanks and Hna Flores loves the necklace and the letter from Megsy. Thanks pretty girl!

I know I still have my anatomy binder but I don’t know where. My guess is that it would be somewhere in the storage room, in my desk or in my closet on that top shelf. 

That´s crazy about the water! But that’s exactly what it’s like here. We usually don’t boil the water though, everyone just buys those big things of water and you use that for everything.

Congrats Justin! I wish I could have heard you´re talk but I´m sure you did wonderfully! Love you bud.

So last night we received calls about transfers...I´m staying here but Hna Flores will be going out to El Campo to be a sister training leader out there so my new trainer will be Hna Given from the US. I´ve met her before and she´s super nice so I´m excited but it’s also sad to say goodbye to Hna Flores because I probably won´t see her very often. (El Campo is like the country, about 2 hours away in guagua or bus) But that´s all part of the mission right? It’s all an adventure! I just hope I know the area well enough to get us around. We´ll see! We actually change comps and everything tomorrow.

This week has been full of exciting things! We had an Hermanas conference where we all went to the mission home and had a bunch of speakers and lessons and some stuff about personal safety and things like that. We got to go to the temple on Friday! I love this temple SO much. It was the 5th time I´ve been through this one counting all the times in the CCM and it’s still so beautiful. Friday was my first session in spanish though. That was cool It´s amazing how the Spirit is the best teacher because you don´t need to be fluent or even understand what´s being said in order to learn new things. 

Speaking of spanish, I realized this week that it’s kind of like the story of Peter walking on the water towards Christ. When I stop thinking so much about the words I´m trying to say and instead just think about the person we´re teaching and have faith that the Lord will help me, it’s a million times easier. But the second I start doubting, start thinking that I don´t speak Spanish or things like that, my mind goes blank. Faith is powerful!

Well I still love this country and the people and the work. It’s an amazing experience. Obviously hard, but thanks for all your support and prayers. This gospel is most definitely true and La Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de Los Ultimos Dias es la iglesia verdadera.

Love always,

Hermana Allen

Habituales con dulce. So this is a dinner here. It looks and tastes like creamy hot chocolate with yams (but they taste like chocolate because they sit in the soup part) and little wafer cookies. It's actually made with beans though!

I love to see the temple!

Thanks for the package!

It's crazy how Christian this country is. These kinds of things are on every car and guagua.

Susan Diaz. She's the daughter of the Bishop and super funny. She loves to take selfies with us.

Ashley's Mission Email #10

Mission Life!

I actually wasn't able to go to the temple this week. Sad. I got a little sick on Monday night and didn't quite feel good enough to travel to the temple the next morning, which was unfortunate. I felt bad for Hna Flores who had to stay with me all day. It was actually kind of a funny story though...

After emailing on Monday we were in a lesson with an investigator and I wasn't feeling too good to start, but figured I could make it through the lesson and the FHE we had after. I started feeling worse during the lesson and when we stood up to leave I felt like I was going to faint.  But I didn't want to ruin the Spirit or anything. Hna Flores and our investigator kept talking though. So I tried to quitely sit down. But that kind of drew attention so they realized I wasn't feeling great. Hna Flores was like, she´s white but not THAT white. Claribel (our investigator) tried to get me to drink from this bottle but as she tried to push it towards my face I saw the word rum... (luckily it was English and I could figure out what it was before she made me drink it.) I just pushed it away and said water was fine. Hna Flores called Hno. Reyes, a member who lived next door and he came over and gave me a blessing. I rested for a little bit, then had enough energy to walk home. As we left Hno. Reyes told Claribel to study in Corinthians about blessings of health. I sure hope she doesn't think we´re crazy now. Haha but pero todo bien and we get to go to the temple on Friday! 

Entonces...the invesigator that I told you about, Marisol is doing great! We taught her AND her husband for the first time last night. The problem with a lot of investigators is that most people who live together with kids aren´t actually married because it costs too much. But I know there was a reason that we found her that day. And she has such a desire to learn more and comes to church every week that she can. She´s awesome!

Some other things about the DR. the storms are crazy. The lightning is so bright and the thunder usually sets a bunch of car alarms off because it´s so loud! Also, when they say they´re going to clean the house, they mean it. Ever cleaned the inside of a house with a pressure washer? It's pretty fun! 

Remind me to watch Finding Nemo in Spanish when I get home. Hna Flores and I were talking about movie quotes and the "fin, noggin, dude" is WAY cooler in Espanol. 

Anyway, thank you all for your prayers and love. Keep sharing this gospel. Make it apart of your every day life to just talk to someone about your beliefs because it could be exactly what they need right now. There´s something about the gospel that can directly relate to anyone and everyone. Promise. 

Love,

Hermana Allen

Tacos!

Sisters of Zona Oriental.

Ashley's Mission Email #9

Hey!

So this week...well we taught lessons and walked a lot and you know, the life of a missionary. In our district meeting on Thursday Presidente Corbitt came to share a little bit with us and it was very inspiring as usual. He read John 4 with us about Christ talking with the women at the well. He talked about how thats like a contact. Christ was on His way to an äppointment¨ and decided to talk to her. He shared a brief message with her and then invited her husband like we should invite the family. There are a lot more comparisons in that chapter about how to get references and how we can receive revelation specifically for the person and lots of other cool things. It's a great chapter. Presidente Corbitt really is inspired and his messages are always great!

We ate a members house this Sunday! It was the Primary President and her family. She has 3 boys and a girl megans age. One of the little boys is so energetic and so funny. It's interesting because she gave us all our food and then they weren´t even going to eat with us at first. I guess thats kind of the culture. 

We ended up doing a lot of contacting this week because the ward is still learning how to get references. A little bit of advice... it helps a lot when the members are involved.

I don't remember if I told you guys this but Elder Holland was in the CCM here just 2 weeks before I got here so we´re just swapping places! I want to hear how that went!!

We get to go to the temple tomorrow!!! I´m so excited. The whole mission gets to attend the temple and I think we get to talk to the temple president for a while too. I´m super excited for that. The temple president (Presidente Flake) is really cool. He´s from Snowflake AZ too!

Mi Español... I´m sure you´re tired of hearing this but it´s coming along. We had a lesson this week with one of our investigators where I went with one of the other sisters because her companion was sick so my companion stayed with her. This meant I kind of had to lead the lesson because it was our investigator. I felt really peaceful though and it was slow but I was able to say what I wanted. Then the husband told me that I dont understand anything and dont speak spanish... Dominicans are really blunt. Haha. It actually didn´t bother me at all though because I know I said what I needed to say.

Entonces...have a wonderful week!

Love,

Hermana Allen

Our Sweet Ride... I Wish

Ashley's Mission Email #8

Casi 2 meses! Where does the time go?

so by the time i get to the computor i always seem to forget what happened this week...

dominicans are still loud and crazy but i still love it here. the weather is still hot and humid but i´m adjusting. i always have like 20 mosquito bites on my legs. the mosquitos here are like immune to repellent so thats fun. every missionary i know has had chikinguna so i´m now just hoping that i don´t get a bad case of it. the worst is trying to sleep when the power is out because then our fans dont work but i´m usually tired enough to fall asleep anyway and the power doesn´t go out very often in our apartment thank goodness. the food is great! i ate at pico pollo for the first time this week (thats super dominican, they´re EVERYWHERE. its kind of like kfc but less clean. but i still haven´t gotten sick so that´s a blessing.) the rule on eating with members is tricky because the other president said never but presidente corbitt says we are allowed to if we help prepare the food to make sure they cook with clean water and everything is sanitary. that makes it tricky though because you can´t really tell one member you can eat with them and another that you can´t. but we´ve eaten with the bishops family and one other so far so usually we´re on our own. Hna Flores and Palacios make delicious Guatemalan food a lot which makes me wish i was a better cook to share something with them too!

remeber my story from last week. she came to church with us and i just love her so much. she´s actually from haiti and her kids live there but her spanish is great which is good because some of the haitians only speak creol so we can´t teach them. my french (and sometimes even my english) went out the window when i started learning spanish. anyway she´s awesome and i REALLY hope she agrees to be baptized because this gospel would make her so happy!

so as a ward of references we´re trying to find creative ways for the members to find people who are interested in the gospel. one of our ideas is that we will hold ballet classes at the church for the primary and they bring friends and we share a spiritual thought to start and then later hold a mini performance for the parents to come watch and hopefully allow us to teach them. so guess what! i get to teach ballet! in spanish! we´ve had one class so far and its cute how excited they all are. i hope it goes well.

the spanish...well it´s coming. somedays i´m like woah i just bore my testimony without having to translate everyword in my head and other days i feel like its such a struggle to make a sentence. either way i know i´ve been called here for a reason which also means that i´ve been called to learn spanish for a reason. a section in Predicad Mi Evangelio said something about how we should not just master gospel vocab because the Lord invests a lot in us to learn a new language and it might be because we need it later on in life too. so i´ll keep studying and praying. 

OH MI MADRE! ELDER HOLLAND! i´m so jealous. that´s amazing. that will be such an amazing experience. wow. well i want to hear all about that! good luck with your talk. thats intimidating but i know you´ll do great and say exactly what the congregation needs to hear. Dad is so lucky to be able to spend so much time with him. tell me what you learn!

Hna Goff, Flores y Palacios (left to right)

Happy Birthday!

yummy Guatamalan food

Yummy Guatemalan food. Sister Goff, Sister Flores (Ashley's companion) and Sister Palacios

What happens when no hay luz.

Pday Activities