A wonderful & entertaining week

Today at 11:09 AM

Hello! 

Fall is here and the leaves are beginning to change. Nothing too dramatic yet, but I am really excited! The smaller trees have almost all changed, but the big ones are still tall and green. I have never been around so many trees in all my life, I can only imagine the mess the leaves will leave! Oh well, I think I now understand how people actually jump into leaf piles. They live in a place like this! And Dad, you asked about how often I get to see the ocean. It depends, sometimes more than others. It is quite a treat when it happens. There was a Less-active who lived in an apt right near the water in Port Washington. We never did find her, but we never minded paying the place a visit :) 

What a wonderful and entertaining week. I started taking this new medication to help me sleep, and it has made me quite punch happy. My companion and district have been thoroughly entertained. Mostly, I now just speak my mind more than I used to....oh dear. My body is getting used to it, but I still say the silliest things. They don't mention that side effect on the bottle!! It also knocks me out...all. day. long. But all missionaries are tired, so maybe I have just been out for 15 months. 

 Even though I have been really sick this week, we were able to get a lot done. And I learned something else last night. The worst part about being sick, especially as a missionary is all the things you cant do and all the work that is left undone, that usually wouldn't be a problem for you. Its been quite the challenge to balance keeping our enormous area going, manage mission leadership responsibilities, try to exchange with 13 sister companionships during the transfer, meet their needs, try to get healthy and climb out of a hole. Its also hard when how I feel can be so unpredictable and debilitating. Its not even frustration at not being able to do all of these things perfectly (I let that go a long time ago), its just simply not being able to do it. Its hard not to feel that it wouldn't be better if someone else came in  to replace me so as to not let so much go undone. I was praying to Heavenly Father, and voicing all of my concerns when that familiar voice entered very powerfully into my heart and said, "I want your all, and I don't care how much that is." I was then overwhelmed with this feeling of peace and acceptance from my loving Father, and a reminder of all we were able to accomplish this week, and the strength he has given me. My prayer than changed to thank my Heavenly Father and all He is permitting me to do. Also, it all started to make sense. I thought of the widow's mite and how she gave greater than they all, because she gave her all. I thought about the covenants or promises that we make at baptism and in the temple. We promise to give our all. I thought about the scripture in The Book of Mormon that says, We are saved by grace after all we can do. Christ gave his all so that our all will be enough. Enough for what? All that the Father has. Grace makes ALL the difference! I know I can't balance everything and everyone's needs here, but if my all, is all he requires, than I am doing a pretty good job :) 

Also, so many miracles. We found 2 new investigators this week. And were able to teach 3 lessons, which is pretty good! One of the lessons was when I was in the Doctor's office. My asthma doctor is this  beautiful fiery Persian Jewish woman from the Bronx. However stressful Dr appts can be, I like going to her and she is taking good care of me. Over the course of my visits, we have been able to have some neat discussions as she is examining my nose, ears and throat. Kind of funny to be teaching someone about prophets as they are looking straight up your nose, but God's thoughts are mysterious :) anyway. Sis Mortensen was in the lobby making calls, while I went to see the Doc. About 5-10min later she came in and said, "What's the call? Did you find anything?" The doctor smiled sheepishly and said, "Not yet" To which I smiled and said, "We are actually talking about Joseph Smith, we haven't gotten to the nose stuff yet." It was neat, and taught me that there is no specified way or time to share the gospel :)

Another miracle and a story to prove the power of member missionary work. We went out to Terryville to exchange with both of the sister companionships serving there. We met the sisters at the chapel after a baptism. I took the two trainers and stayed in Terryville, and Sis Mortensen took the trainees back to Plainview. Our Ward mission leader was kind and offered to take us out to eat while we had correlation. On the way there, He called and asked if I would invite the other 3 sisters too. As I went to do so, I realized I had BOTH of our phones (we have 2) and as I asked the other sisters which one of them left their phone with the others...neither had. "fantastic!" I thought haha, we had 4 phones for three sisters, and no way of getting a hold of the others. Thankfully they didn't get too far down the road before they realized they had no way of calling anyone. Somehow they found some elders who let them use the phone to call the mission leader. Anyway, we went to Five Guys and made quite a scene with 1 young man paying for 6 young woman who were all dressed up and had tags and addressed each other as sister. The owner took notice and asked our correlator where we were from. Joe was talking to him for a while. When he came back to the table, the owner asked if we wanted anything else and that it would be on him! He also said, to let him know when we ever came in because he wanted to make sure we ate for free. As he walked a way, Sis Mortensen asked him, "What did you say to him?" and Joe, our ward mission leader said simply, "We just talked about the gospel." Not 5min later the kid who wrung up our order came up to our table and said, "The owner said you all are Mormon, and I don't know very much about your church and want to learn. I love learning about different religions." Then handing us a piece of paper with his information on it said, "Here is my name and number I would love to learn more." Right then and there Joe got his address and set up an appt with him. We will meet with him tomorrow :). Amazing thing about it all, is that we missionaries just came in and stuffed our faces with delicious burgers. Joe is a return missionary and still does a great job at sharing what he knows to be true. In fact after our friend walked away, he said under his breath, "I still got it." It is fun to realize that just because I may be going home soon, doesn't mean I have to stop being a missionary. The world needs this gospel, and the Lord needs his missionaries and members to only be willing to open their mouths.

I love you all! Good Luck Allie! I read that milesplit article, look at you all famous. You are going to do great! Just try to relax and give yourself a break. I am praying for you! And chipper, hope you enjoyed your first week in Argentina! Have you eaten steak yet? Argentinians eat a lot of really yummy steak :) You will probably feel at home.