Hola! Buenos Dias a todos!

Hermana Meanea with her red hair highlights

Hola! Buenos Dias a todos!

We had a good, busy, crazy week here. Just like normal!

Last Monday we had a good busy P-Day!  We emailed for a while and then went to the mall. We did our grocery shopping and then I went and got my hair done. It took forever but I really like it! I asked for red highlights and a trim with layers and bangs. They stylist put in so many highlights that I look like a redhead now! It is different but I really like it! :-) We then hurried to our appt with the a member family and our recent convert. We had a really good time eating and sharing a message with them.

Tuesday started out amazing because I was able to go for a run and it was raining just a little bit (it reminded me of my favorite run at the Ragnar in Washington state) and it was perfect! I woke Hna Pearson up and got her to lay down in front of our sliding glass door so that she could see me and then I just ran circles in front of our apartment and it was so wonderful! Before my mission I couldn't stand just going out and running, but now I love it and even crave it sometimes. It just started my morning out really good and reminded me how good life is and that the tender mercies of The Lord are all over! We had to go to Sears Auto Center to get the light on our car fixed, again. Frank, the guy who helped us last time, was there and he told us he would have the mechanics look at it to try and see what was going on. After an hour Frank told us that it was some kind of electrical short and we would have to take it to the dealer, but that the car was under warranty so it should cost us nothing. Yeah! After that fun time we went to Hammond for our appointment with a branch member hermana. She asked us to go and pickup Popeye's for lunch, which we happily did. I think it was my first time really eating Popeye's and it was really good. We enjoyed doing service for her, we got to spend about an hour weeding in her garden which was awesome because it was different. My hands got SO dirty and it was fun to have dirt all over again! We then drove to Chicago Heights for our appointment with a less active family we are working with. We were able to go sit and talk with her for quite a while.  Her husband got home and we were able to share a message about the Book of Mormon. The hermana told us about how she had realized how blessed she was because her daughters wanted to go to Church and her and her husband were hurting their family by not taking them. They told us about how they want to become and eternal family and the husband told us he wants to get the Priesthood! I was amazed at the complete change that has happened with them. Just a few weeks ago they didn't seem to have any interest or desire. It just shows me that I can never judge anyone. Then the best thing happened. We talked to the hermana about how we would love to help them prepare their daughter to be baptized. She said that would be good and that she would talk with the daughter. Then the daughter walked over and her mom told us we could ask her. Hna Pearson explained what baptism was and asked her if she would like to do that. She said yes! We didn't set a date right then, although both of us were thinking about it. As we were leaving the mother asked when we were going to start with the lessons with her daughter. I suggested that we could put a date as a goal for her to be baptized and work towards that date. They agreed to work towards September 26. That evening we took our car to the dealership and after looking at it for 20 minutes, they had fixed it. Turns out that Sears used the wrong bulb and had jammed it into the socket, breaking part of the bulb in the process. Yes, that would cause a problem! So now our tail light should be fixed! :-)

Wednesday we drove back to Sears and thankfully Frank was working so we were able to have a heart to heart with him. We showed him what had actually been the problem, he was disgusted, and gave us a whopping $5 back. But at least the problem is fixed now. We drove to Griffith to pick up a branch member hermana to take her to our lesson with a lady we had scheduled to teach. After a lot of confusion of where the branch member lived and having to drive from Griffith to Hammond, we finally picked her up and got to Chicago Heights. The lesson went really well and the lady we were teaching was sooooooo excited to see the branch member hermana again. They used to work together but haven't seen each other in forever. The lesson was good and I think really helped the lady we are teaching feel more comfortable. We took our branch member home and then drove back to Chicago Heights for our appointment with a less active family. We talked about scripture study and prayer to help their son with his Duty to God.

Thursday was mostly our weekly planning day. In the afternoon we went and taught the young girl who is preparing for baptism about the Restoration of the Gospel with her uncle.  It went good and she is excited to get baptized. We had MCM that night for the first time with our new Ward Mission Leader. It went good and it is going to be really great working with him. We then headed home as the Elders and nearly everyone else in the Valpo Zone headed north to stay the night in Chicago to make the next day easier on travel for the mission conference. But we were to stay in our apartment and do our travel to Chicago early the next morning. As the Elders were leaving us from out MCM, they told us that our taillight was out, AGAIN!!! What?!?!?! So now we get to take it back to the dealer, again, yea!

Elder & Sister Hamula with Hermanas Pearson & Meanea

Friday was the most amazing day! And funny enough, we woke up at 4am and left the house at 5am to beat the Chicago rush hour traffic, and I still consider it one of the most amazing days ever! :-) Waking up at 4am was tough! But we got ready. Hermana Pearson was so sweet and amazing to curl my hair and then the Hebron Sisters picked us up and we headed to Wilmette for a mission conference. We hit some bad traffic but managed to make it there just in time to sit down and quietly read our scripture with everyone else so that we could impress Elder Hamula (a member of the First Quorum of Seventy https://www.lds.org/church/leader/james-j-hamula?lang=eng) when he came in with President Woodbury. After he got there we all got to go up shake his and his wife's hands which was a really neat experience. Mission Conference was absolutely incredible. So many questions and prayers answered, ones I didn't even know that I had. The big theme was "Recommitment". Overall our mission is doing pretty good, but we have the potential to be so much better. We have the faith to serve, but we don't have enough faith to succeed...yet. We need to use Preach My Gospel more. We need to be more obedient, and we need to open our mouths and talk to everyone. It was a chastisement, but so loving that it didn't feel like it. I loved the entire meeting. We then got to eat lunch as a mission, take a mission picture, and I even got sung to with all of the other September birthdays from the whole mission. It was so fun to be with everyone and get to talk and see missionaries that I hadn't seen forever. For the time in between the conference and the fireside we went to help some English Sisters in their area. They gave us some potential investigators and former investigators to follow up with. Hermana Pearson and I ended up knocking a white polish street in the cold sleet while the Hebron Sisters were inside seeing a former investigator that Sister Ripely had known. I  much prefer working with the Spanish people, they are a lot nicer then the Polish people yelling at us :-) We then drove to the fireside in Hyde Park which was amazing as well! Unfortunately none of our members from down in Indiana were able to make it but it was such a good fireside for everyone. After a late dinner from McDonald's, we drove home, finally getting there about midnight. We quickly fell asleep, exhausted after a long, 20 hour day!!!

Hermana Meanea at Griffith Branch

International Noche de Hogar

with her Tater Tots and Fry Sauce

Saturday started with studies and then we headed out to stop at Costco for cups for our branch activity tonight and then to the Church to help decorate. In the afternoon we took our car back to the dealership and Aaron (it can't be good with how familiar we are with these people we are talking with to fix our car!) snuck us right in to have the car looked at even though there was a ton of other people already there. After about 40 minutes, they fixed the problem for good this time (or so we pray!). Apparently, when the Sears people had shoved the light bulb in, they had bent the metal tabs and so the bulb was loose. But the dealership fixed it, along with a brake light we hadn't known was out, and we were out of there! We went back to the Church, finished blowing up balloons, and made our food for our Branch International Night activity. I was pretty proud of the tater tots and fry sauce that I made to represent Utah! :-) It was a really successful activity, we had a lot of people there. The majority of them weren't members so that was really awesome. We all had a lot of fun!

We had another Super Sunday at Church today! The less active family that we have been working so hard with came again and so did another less active hermana and her husband. She is never really ever able to come because it is too difficult with her two year old daughter that has a lot of health problems. All of those people made for a very good Sunday for us! We had studies and then had dinner with the branch Presidente and his family. We were able to discuss with him some of the struggles that we have noticed among members of the branch and to talk about different people we are working with and how they are progressing. 

Griffith Branch International Noche de Hogar

So this was a pretty amazing week! We had some incredible miracles and some fun times. This next week is going to be super amazing as well! I cannot believe that on Thursday I turn 20 years old and that I also hit my year make of my mission, that is completely surreal to me!!! This past year has been incredible, incredibly hard and incredibly amazing! In honor of my 20th Birthday, here are 20 things that I have learned on my mission:

1. The JOY of sharing the Gospel is real
2. The Atonement is not just for sins but is for everything!!!
3. The Plan of Salvation is real and brings real joy and peace
4. The Restoration of the Gospel happened, and is continuing to happen
5. Obedience brings blessing, exact obedience brings miracles
6. Life is good, eternal life is better
7. The Book of Mormon can answer any question!
8. Spanish, yes, I have learned Spanish!
9. I love the city!
10. Missionaries and members MUST work together
11. Independence, self-sufficient
12. Hard work
13. Love for all, despite race, place, or circumstance
14. Miracles and tender mercies from The Lord happen all the time and we need only look for them
15. Heavenly Father loves us, his children, and answers our prayers
16. This is the Lord's work and we must do it His way
17. When we yield ourselves to The Lord, we get so much more back in return
18. The fundamentals of the Gospel are the keys to Salvation
19. All things are possible with the help of The Lord
20. We cannot forget to LOOK UP!

My sweet, amazing, kind, loving, friends and family! I really cannot thank you all for your overwhelming love and support of me for the past 20 years and especially for this last year. I love you all so much and I really am so grateful for you. I pray that all is well with you. Please know that I know this is where I am supposed to be and this is what I am supposed to be doing! I know that I am sharing the true Gospel of Jesus Christ with others because I have so much joy and peace from it, and I want to share that with everyone else. The Book of Mormon is the word of God. It answers our great questions of the soul and beings peace and happiness. Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. He saw our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and through him, they restored the Gospel to the earth. I know this because every time we teach the Restoration and testify of the First Vision, I can feel the power of the Spirit, it is unmistakable. I love you all so much. I miss you like crazy but am so grateful for this adventure, this opportunity! I love you! Have a wonderful week!

Eternal Love,

Hermana Allyse Meanea