another week's email!


hola everyone!

so this week has been wonderful. i want to tell you about a few really neat experiences. 

1. contacting at the university on friday, we talked to this man who was excited to see us because he said he had a passion for english and had taught himself by listening to music (he was a Christian singer) and reading grammar books. we taught him a little about El Libro de Mormón and la Restauración in Spanglish. i was able to use my mission prep work and recite the First Vision is english. it felt weird after only saying it in spanish for so long but and the Spirit was strong. he was sooo interested. he told us that it was a gift from God that we were able to run into him that day. we gave him a pamphlet and a book of mormon and he was so grateful. he said he would definitely read it because he wanted to know more about Christ. i know it was a lesson mostly in english...but still really cool. hopefully he contacts the missionaries.

2. we watched a devotional this week called the character of Christ. it was given by elder bednar a few years ago on christmas day and it was amazing. when it was over, it was one of those times when i didnt want to move because the Spirit was so strong but at the same time i wanted to get up and get to work. it was super inspirational. the whole message was about turning outward like Christ would, when the natural man would turn in to our self. so good.

3. all the north americans and latinos leaving to puerto rico and the santiago mission left on tuesday so on monday evening after planning time we were talking with our roommates (hermana geraldo y portillo. i miss them a lot, they were great and helped us with our spanish a lot!) anyway, they asked if we wanted to come into their district to sing that helamans army/ sisters in zion song with them as their closing prayer. we didn't know the words in spanish but they were like its ok they're on the board, so we went and sang with them and the elders in spanish and it was really powerful. so sad to see them leave but they all had such amazing stories and will be great missionaries!

okay so my month mark is on saturday and thats pretty unbelievable! time has gone by really fast. the past 2 days it was just the 22 missionaries that all came the same time as me and that was pretty nice. we all played baseball during gym time yesterday and that was so fun! i feel really Dominican now. haha today, 45 new missionaries came in, which in provo wouldnt be a lot, but here its like chaos! this is the most they've had in about a year i think. but its fun to have them all here! we got new roommates for the 3rd time since we've been here! 2 from mexico, 1 from here and 1 from provo but she knows spanish. there's another sister here that is from the Philippines. it took her 28 hours to get here! she's only been a member for a year and she's the only member of her family. there are so many more elders and sisters here with stories like that and it's pretty amazing!  

hermana olsen and i got a calling this week! its just to set out and pick up hymn books after CCM prayer every night but it has a reputation here because of the last sisters who had this calling so we have some big shoes to fill. haha the trio of elders in my district were called as the new AP's too so we tease them that our callings are pretty much the same thing.

we watched another devotional this week that was given about 2 years ago and as he was announcing, we heard "and then we'll have a musical number by our own Elder David Archuleta". Hermana Olsen turned to me and was like this is the best day of my life. it was pretty funny. he sang the Spirit of God and it was good! one of the verses was in spanish!

hermana olsen and i have found some fun stuff to do in our spare time. one is translating hannah montana or high school musical sounds into spanish. that's always fun! 

Sundays are the best day of the week here! we have sacrament where we all prepare a talk in spanish on the subject for that week and then we are called up randomly to give it. then sunday school in our districts. hermana olsen and i teach this week. then relief society in english so thats a blessing! then we always have a doctrinal class with presidente freestone. he is a very smart man. we get to watch a movie and then later a devotional and then sunday dinner is always pizza and we get ice cream and get to walk around the temple every sunday night! usually the best day of the week!

the temple is open again! so we got to do sealings and an endowment session this morning. i love this temple! its actually really big and apparently when it was being built every one would ask why they were building such a big temple and one of the 12 said that it was for a reason and would be needed. the church is growing so much here! its interesting because this island is actually where Christopher Colombus first stopped apparently and he came back here on every voyage he took. i'm lucky to be here where the work is progressing so quickly!

we go on splits with the real missionaries tomorrow for about 8 hours! scary but so exciting!! 

words for this week...

la nube=cloud (but it sounds a little like noob so it made me think of LoLo.)

here's a tongue twister we learned...yo daba y trabajaba en la guagua yo hablaba yo viajaba yo comía y engordaba. (literally it means...i gave and worked, on the bus i spoke, i travelled, i ate and i got fat...) so it doesnt actually mean anything but it sounds cool when you say it in spanish! haha

well i think that's all from this week. next week we probably will only get about 45 minutes to email because of how many people are here so i'm sorry if i can't email every one back!

only 1 more p-day in the CCM! oh mi madre!

love from the DR,

hermana allen