It's Always Nice to Talk to the Ladies!"

Thank you so much for being my parents! I hope it's okay that I brag about you.... a lot. You're just awesome :)

 

President called us last night to congratulate us on the baptism...which was WONDERFUL, by the way. Tommy bore super powerful testimony about searching the scriptures and coming to know that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God. He's so excited to be put to work in the ward and help others come unto Christ. Anyway, President told us that due to so many sisters going home all at once, he has to close a Spanish sisters' area. He said that he discussed it with the zone leaders but they insisted that they needed all of us in their zone. They said "They only make up 15% of our zone, but they've had 25% of our baptisms!" So I seriously doubt that our area will get the ax, but we'll be praying and working hard to make absolutely certain that they don't touch the NoHo 5to Hermana Bici area. (Note: no idea what this means.)

 

I LOVED Hannah's letter. It's actually something that we've been working on a lot lately...presenting a plan to Heavenly Father in prayers and then working to make our faith in that prayer plan come to pass. We divided our goals up into monthly and weekly goals and then make promises to God according to how we'll put forth our effort so that He can do His part....we adjust our weekly goals based on our area's need and our efforts according to how to become better missionaries.

 

It's been helping me grow my faith in the Lord's desires and abilities to make miracles happen and realize that we can have a much greater impact on our circumstances than we comprehend at the moment.

 

We're also trying to focus more on repentance. Our job is to help people develop a relationship with Heavenly Father by teaching them how to make their lives in harmony with the teachings of Jesus Christ. In other words: change. We have to help people make changes in their lives. Sometimes they aren't willing to do what's required to have that relationship, but when they are and when they do, they are pleasantly surprised by how much Heavenly Father DOES have and DOES want to bless them. It's so cool!

Anyway, gotta run, not the runs, but I love you more than all the palm trees on Sherman Way!

Hermana Manzana

(Note:  Allison was called "Appleton"...and then "Apple" when she was little, and apple in Spanish is "manzana".  It rhymes! - Mom)