December 2017

HELLO everyone!!! Yes I am still alive if you were wondering!

So we just got our calls last night anddddd I am staying!!!! :D Well we both are :) SUPER excited because I might get to be present for some of the baptisms!!!! Give you an update on the 3 people we are really working with:

Norma Lopez:

Norma is amazing!! She was a member referral and is just the sweetest little lady ever! she's probably about in her 40's and is really looking for more peace in her life! She is currently working toward January 20th for baptism! We have a lesson with her tonight in a members home. She literally reads the Book of Mormon and takes notes!!! She should be coming to church this week :) We hadn't even invited her yet when we were in the lesson we were just explaining the peace and blessings we've seen from coming to church and she was like oh okay the services are at 9 right? I can't be there this week but I'll be there next week!" She's amazing!! 

Clive James:

Clive came from California and thinks California is like the best place on earth....like literally he thinks it's heaven... He is an art major at Texas Tech and is right brained (literally it's a medical thing). He literally told us at church yesterday "I just know this is the true church, it's irrefutable " So we were like Clive were are going to give you 3 dates to pray about and think about with God to see when you can be baptized. When He wants you to be. He's awesome just really really scared to jump in. He's 44 and divorced so he's really scared to limit his wife options. He also has a hard time with coffee right now. He's awesome though! He just had dinner with one of the member last night without us! 

Sean (pronounced Shane) Seacrist:

Sean called us the other night and was like umm I'd like to take the lessons? I think you may have gotten our reaction on tape through another email. He and his girlfriend had just recently finished the book of Mosiah in the Book of Mormon and read everyday together.... yea insane!!! He wants to get baptized it's just a matter of teaching him everything now. Pretty crazy! He's quite the intellect. He loves the old testament and has been keeping me on my toes quite a bit! He literally wanted to go to gospel doctrine. He's quite the nut but great! His only thing right now is work on Sundays so he can only stay for sacrament meeting but he said he can ask for Sundays off and could probably get it too but he's concerned financially. We'll be working on that though :) 

All super amazing people!!! Christmas really is the best time in the world to be a missionary!! :) IF you're wondering yes it's still hot, no we haven't seen any snow but there is a prediction of snow for Christmas Eve and Christmas :) Am I mad about it not getting cold, no just disappointed. Am I pumped because my previous companion is coming back to Lubbock, YESSSSS!!! No unfortunately she is not my companion again just a different area in Lubbock. Is Sister Montgomery awesome, easy yes. 

It's going to be a GREAT transfer, you could say I'm a little excited :) 

November 14, 2017

HELLO HELLO HELLO Family and friends! :)

This has been CRAZY week! I got a new companion, Sister Wilson is now in Childress Texas. My new companions name is Sister Montgomery! She is a Spiritual POWER HOUSE!! She has a very special spirit with her and is incredible! She is going to teach me SOOO much and I'm very excited :) 

This week has been quite a roller coaster as most weeks but this one was more on the up hill climb...you can guess if it was a good one or rough one with that analogy hahaha :) 

It's been a lot of meetings and planning this past week. We also got a couple text from investigators dropping us...those always hurt a little bit. but It's okay! just gives us more time to focus on the those that are ready to progress right now those who are ready to receive the restored gospel of Jesus Christ! A great message of peace, hope, joy, and freedom if I may say so myself! :) I have all of those this week through lots of prayer, questions, and humility (the last one wasn't really by choice...) 

I just want to share a couple experiences that I really won't forget on my mission. First was on Saturday (this will be kinda out of order but that's also okay) So we were waiting for the Elders to come to bring a key to open the church building so we can have our English class and this rougher man in a even rougher truck drives up and was like do y'all need any help? and we informed him of the situation and he was like okay hope they get there soon and drove off. We'll fast forward about an hour and this man appears in the church and pokes his head into the room and was like hey I bought the sisters lunch and it's out in my car! Would you like to come get it? Now looking back at this moment this didn't sound like most safe of the situations I've been in  but he had a handful of tithing slips in his hand so I guess I assumed all would be okay.... so we went out to the car and I assumed he just went out to what a burger or burger king and just bought us a meal. He opened the door to his truck and I saw a bunch of grocery bags from Walmart. I thought to myself oh he must have picked us up something from the deli while he was grocery shopping Nope. He then passes us bags and bags of food! I was in shock I literally had no idea what to say there were 2 loaves of bread packages of cheese bags of chips 2 gallons of milk 2 jugs of juice and more! we literally didn't have to buy any food this week! crazy!! He just turned to us and was like consider it a early Christmas! and then left! 

okay actually that is all I have time for... Until next week! Just know I experienced one of the many purposes of why we were put in families! I love y'all! 

SISTER Allart

October 16, 2017

This week was quite the adventure!! We had zone conference, exchanges, and the Primary Program!! As well as SO MANY MIRACLES!!!! We also had a lesson with Joe this week! :) 

I don't know if I've explained how we met Joe before so I'll do it again if I have!

SO Joe :) One day we were giving some service at the food bank here in Lubbock and we were making some boxes and possibly a fort with the boxes....it was the best fort you've ever seen I promise! In consequence of our awesome fort we were a little late to lunch. We strolled in, ate some delicious food and were the only ones there. well we were getting up to leave and this man comes up to us and asks "Are you two the Mormon girls?" and we were like "Yes!" and he was like "Can you pray for me" and the amazing Sister Wilson turns and asks " Is there anything specific we can pray for?" He then explained how this was going to be a really hard week and he didn't want to fall into his drinking addiction again and that if we prayed for him he'd be able to do it. 

So the next week rolls around and I'm on exchanges with Sister Palmer at the Food bank and we see Joe walk in and he sees us and I go up to meet him and was like Joe! It's so good to see you! How was this weekend? and with the biggest smile He said "Sister I did it! I had 2 opportunities and I felt something I hadn't felt before I felt like I won! I didn't even want to! At that moment I knew you sisters were praying for me, I knew it! I had never felt like that before. " We then told him he could have that feeling all the time and we told him we had a book for him and would help him have that strength every time he read it. So we went to the car and grabbed a Book of Mormon and then set a return appointment with him. 

So Friday rolls on in and we sit down to have a lesson with him and start having some brief conversation stuff a little bit of How to begin teaching and then I was like well Joe before we get into some more scriptures can we start with a prayer? I'll say the one in the beginning and at the end will you say the prayer to close our meeting? He said he would try to do his best. So after I say the opening prayer he was like I don't think I can repeat that. we then explained that prayer was a personal conversation with God. He really liked that :) So we got into the restoration and the Spirit was so strong. We got into the Saviors earthly ministries and we talked about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and read Alma 7:11-13 and placed Joe in where it says his people and we broke it down. after Joe finished reading we were silent for a solid 10 seconds and Joe was trying to find words and couldn't really and then he finally said I've been taught this all of my life but it feels different this time. It feels like this weight has been lifted off my shoulders. We then read a couple more scriptures and talked about the freeing power of Christ's Atonement. He looked at us and said I want to cry but I'm a man and men don't cry. So we finished up the restoration and we said Joe will you take the opportunity right now and ask God if the Book of Mormon is true? and so he said his first vocal not rote prayer! The Spirit was so strong and incredible! Afterwards we were sorting through some cans at the food bank and Joe came and found us and was like I feel like I'm at this war in myself I feel like I'm grieving my old life but I'm not sure if I want to yet. So we told him about Enos and he left to go read it. SO PREPARED. I love Joe. He is so incredible! 

So I'll be brief about our exchanges but just know they are incredible!!!! So on our end we had an appointment fall through and so we went knocking FOR 3 HOURS. IT WAS AWESOME. We only spoke with 6 people in that time frame and found 2 families and set return appointments with both of them! It was awesome!! SO MANY MIRACLES! With one of the young families we met the Mom her name is Jordan and we started talking about pinterest and then related it to the gospel it was really great but then we spoke about the Book of Mormon and she opened it to a random page and we started talking about the Atonement and then read Alma 7 and she was almost in tears by the end and we then set a return appointment for the next day! 

So lastly I want to talk about the amazing ward I'm in and the primary program that they put together. So a little background on the moment though. Before church we tried to go get our investigators Brandi and Taborah to church. There's a video below of me talking to Jayden about trying to get his mom up. Well to keep a long story short they didn't come :( but we went to church and the primary program began and they did such an amazing job. There was one particular moment that I won't get into too much detail but it was very powerful and was a big testimony builder to me. I was in tears by the end of one of the songs they sang and felt this burning in me. I knew that families were ordained of God. I knew that these people were good, this gospel was good, and that this is were Christ church was. I understood a little more by the end of that program and was so sad that Brandi and Taborah weren't there and that they couldn't have felt this. But next week for sure :) 

Well I hope y'all have a wonderful week, see lots of miracles and remember that God is good! Stay safe and be smart!

SISTER Allart

October 4, 2017

THIS WEEK. Where do I even begin? I love being a missionary, that's where I'll begin!!!!

So this week we got 5 new investigators!!!!! I'll share just one evening that happened Wednesday

 We were going out to talk to Marissa (lady with the ravenous wolf dogs) and she wasn't home but her husband was.....He was not interested but I had the opportunity to plant a seed :) We knocked on the door and when he saw our tags he looked at us and was like I read through some of your book and we are fine with what we have we don't need your Mormon Bible. Little background about Sister Allart is that she really doesn't like it when people call the Book of Mormon the Mormon Bible. So I pipped up and defended the Bible. I didn't think I would have to do that in Texas a lot but I have a lot of opportunities! So anyways Sister Allart then went on to talk about how she loves the Bible and the the Bible is not the Book of Mormon and the Book of Mormon is not the Bible but Both are the word of God and Both are testaments of Jesus Christ after talking about the bible for a bit we got into a conversation about Christ and how Marvin (Marissa's husband) son was going to be getting baptized. we expressed our happiness and excitement for him and their family and it was incredible to see how his heart was literally being softened by the millisecond! I then asked if I could share a scripture from Psalms and he was pretty apprehensive and I looked at him and was like it's in the bible and he was like oh okay.....Texans...We then shared Psalms 82:5-6 and spoke about the darkness and how we're children of God and what not and the spirit was really strong. I then asked if I could share a personal experience that I had with a scripture from the Book of Mormon and he said no but I left him with my testimony of the Book of Mormon and I could tell by the end of the conversation that there was a seed planted and it was going to grow! Gotta love Texas lots of good fertile ground for seeds :) 

BUT THAT NIGHT we harvested :) Delia aka Sister Rodriguez now :) we went to contact her and give her the Book of Mormon she requested and it was so amazing!! We shared the tree of life vision from 1 nephi 8 and wow. She was incredible we stopped and talked about it in between verses and wow. She expressed that she had never felt that way when someone had read scriptures before and that she understood what was going on and it made sense to her. she complimented our knowledge of the scriptures but really it was just cause we knew what was going on prior to the scripture ex: we knew who laman and lemuel were haha but she was so excited she asked when and where church was! we invited her to be baptized and she said yes! she's going to be out of town for a couple weeks but  November 18th! she was probably the only person I've met that has extended a baptismal date and was excited about it all! She's incredible!

We also cleaned the temple fun pictures are below, yes we are on the roof :)

Yes general conference was incredible!! The Book of Mormon is the word of God! Don't know yet?  Read it, ponder it, ask God the Eternal Father if it is true in the name of Christ and I promise if you really want to know He, being God will tell YOU individually because you are known individually. I know it. I know you can know it as well! It will bless your life and bring you closer to God. It is another testament of Jesus Christ. It is a witness of the Son of God's resurrection. Please ask I promise this truth brings freedom. If you do know I would invite you to ask again. 

Well that's about all the time I have until next week! 

SISTER Allart

September 26, 2017

This week was crazy!!! So much fun and so many miracles!!

So I'm only going to do one miracle that happened a day but know that there were A LOT more amazing things that happened than listed! :) 

(mom you probably shouldn't read this one) Monday: So we were going out to contact this referral named Marissa to deliver a Bible. Pretty late that night and it was a pretty sketchy area and Sister Wilson was making me kinda nervous so we texted our district leader where we were. Of course there wasn't any house numbers so we were just knocking to find out what their address was and we finally knocked into someone that helped us get to where we were going and then we got to the house and there was this gate around the house and these as Sister Wilson likes to say "snarling ravenous wolf dogs" in the gate and I will admit these dogs were pretty scary but we felt like we really needed to deliver the bible so we came up with a game plan and then took action!

So we said a prayer and then went through the gate to the door. Me being me I figured that it would be like a Daniel and the lions den scenario and the dogs would calm and we would walk to the door together all happy nope... we walked to the gate after saying that ....

More next week!

So we walked through the gate and the dog ate Sister Wilson!!! just kidding :) we walked through the gate and the dogs kept barking and jumping but never came too close it was like this bubble was around us protecting us! We then knocked on the door and Marissa let us in and we had a really good lesson guided by the Spirit and gave her the Bible and Book of Mormon and set a return appointment their family is very very prepared! We left them with a prayer and she came up to me in tears afterwards and told me that I " had said all the right words" Very touching moment. I love being a Missionary!! :) 

This week we had an incredible district meeting...well they're always good but this one was really really good and not just because we instructed ;) haha but really One of the Assistants to the President took a couple minutes at the end and gave a really good thought from Moses 5, if you'd like to get the details write me and I can send them... it was really good! Anyways we as a district made a goal that each companionship pass out 20 open Books of Mormons in one week! We are going to pass out 10 today and already have passed out 2 so 8 more to go :) but we saw a lot of miracles from it! Just a couple:

Nick: Sister Wilson thought it was funny and took a video of me actually talking to Nick. It's like my prime finding tool, service :) But anyways we were sitting in the car while Sister Wilson was trying to find members to some upcoming appointments when I was sitting in the Drivers seat and saw this person mowing his lawn and the thought came to me and I turned to Sister Wilson and said " I need to go mow that guys lawn" and she gave me this face and said " you need to mow that guys lawn?" and I was like yea you can finish texting the members while I mow! So I grabbed my bag and I took the lawn mower from him and when had a lesson with him handed out a open Book of Mormon and he's now a new investigator! It's so cool to see how service really does provide such an opportunity to share the gospel! 

So our return appointment we scheduled with Nick he wasn't home from school yet apparently and so we sat down and looked at our back up plans and had 2 options either weekly planning or passing out Books of Mormon. So we prayed and decided we needed to pass out Books of Mormon literally got up after the prayer and started walking and Nick's neighbors garage opened and Johnny came out and we started talking about families and shared 1 Nephi 1:1 how even Nephi talked of his goodly parents and while we were talking he kept reading!!!! and then applied more of the Book of Mormon to our conversation!! It was pretty awesome, we can't wait to get a hold of him this week! 

So turn of events we got transfer calls :( BUT I'M STAYING WITH SISTER WILSON!!!!!!!  We're super happy about that!! but the sad part is that they are opening up another area within our ward called Levelland it's basically all of the small towns outside of Lubbock...So it's great that they are bringing more missionaries in but in this area we had 15 of our most progressing investigators 3 of which had baptismal dates... So we get to go finding a lot :) So that makes me happy :) but sad because we won't be teaching Jackie Barry Mooney or Michelle anymore :( But they're in the Lord's hands so nothing can go wrong..permanently for that matter.. :) 

Not much time left but know that the Shadow Hills ward is one of the very best in the Texas Lubbock Mission. Really though if you come to Lubbock come to this ward they know whats going on :) 6 more weeks of pure gold here we come :) 

SISTER Allart

September 13, 2017

Well folks It's been quite a minute but just so y'all know I am still alive and breathing! 

First of all Happy Patriots day!!

Couple quick updates so you're all caught up:

After I was in Midland I went to Eastland,Tx for 2 transfers and met so many wonderful people there!! Me and my companion Sister Neilson also found and taught a man named Michael who was baptized last month :) 

After Eastland I was sent to Lovington with my companion Sister Baldwin. So wonderful!! I just found out yesterday that one of our investigators, Ramon, will be getting baptized this coming week! 

After Lovington I was assigned to be a Sister Training Leader in Lubbock, don't tell anyone else but this has been hands down my favorite area, companion, and transfer!!! There has been A LOT of stress but it has been SO INCREDIBLE!!! I am with Sister Wilson right now who will be one of my eternal friends! 

SO the past week :)

Monday: this past Monday was definitely not our usual preparation day! We went out and did service for a member while also talking to one of her friends Ty (he is literally getting baptized on Saturday!!!!) apparently the night before they had talked for 9 hours about the gospel, answering questions and talking about God's plan for all of His children. I had the privilege to meet Ty and to talk about the Book of Mormon with him and share some select scriptures from the Book of Mormon. Sister Diaz, the member, told us that out of all the missionaries he's met with (he's met with 8 since Monday!) That it was our testimonies and passion that has stuck with him the most :) We saw him on Friday at a baptism (I'll get to that in a minute) and he told me that I was still as passionate as ever. hahah Ty is great! Anyways also while we were at the members home we were breaking windows and tearing up carpet when one of the elders, Elder Thomas sliced his finger open like really bad to the point where he had to go the the emergency room and get 4 stitches.

Tuesday: District meeting and exchanges!! One of the best privileges I get to have as a Sister Training Leader is that I get to go out for the day and serve with different Sisters and learn so much from them!! 

Wednesday: Finished Exchanges and another set of Sisters and we are over came and one stayed the night with us while she was waiting for her new companion. We also received a text from one of our investigators (they had been taking the lessons for about a year) and said that they wanted to get baptized on Friday. Yes Friday as in 2 days. Yes I was really stressed. Yes it was the most incredible miracle! We also attended a nondenominational baptist church...don't know how that works but we saw 2 people get baptized. it was really interesting and I really have gained such a testimony about the Priesthood. I love how within the Church of Jesus Christ of latterday Saints it if first said " having been commissioned of Jesus Christ" This is His Church and He has given his authority! We can receive blessings that have been specifically promised to us from God!!! How  

Thursday: We dropped off Sister Palmer to meet her new companion, we planned a baptism, and then attended a funereal for one of the Sisters husbands in the ward. 

Friday: we had Sara baptismal interview at 2 and she then got baptized at 4 with her husband! SO MANY miracles!!! For example just one: we were getting everything else ready and trying to find people that we totally spaced telling Sara and Paul to bring towels. We went into the closet that has all the Jumpsuits and we were like oh no we forgot to tell them to bring towels! we were looking through the shelves and nothing then as the very top shelf there were exactly 2 towels!!! Miracle? I think yes :) we then had a lesson right after with one of our investigators Michele and then went to the ward BBQ...best BBQ in the world., thank you Texas!! :) 

Saturday: we met with 3 of our investigators Ruby, Patrick, and Michele. MICHELE!! Michele is amazing!! She has her only son out on a mission right now, he converted about 3ish years ago. anyways we are picking up Michele and she was skyping Dakota, her son out on a mission, and it changed everything for her!!!! They just had a short 5 minute lesson and she asked some questions. It was sooo good! later that night we had our lesson and Sister Wilson asked why she was going to read the Book of Mormon. She kept putting her hands down on the Book of Mormon and was like I just want to know if it's true!! yea she's great :) Love her to death :) 

Sunday: Church is incredible as usual :) I really enjoyed the relief society lesson, it was about continuing if education basically and the scripture kept coming to my my mind from Doctrine and Covenants 29:34 how all things are spiritual unto God. Just some really good stuff, I can't wait to further my education when I get home! 

Monday...today! I went to get a haircut and the lady literally chopped off like 3 or 4 inches so my hair is kinda short right now.... but it's all good! We had a good gospel conversation :) 

Here are some great pics so that y'all really know that I'm alive :)

July 2017