Tuesday, September 25, 2012

New Area--Escondido!!

Dear Family,
 
Wow.  I was really excited to email this week but oh my gosh I got a lot of big updates.  Holy Cow!  I am excited about Hawaii.  That will be super fun.  I don't know what I would want to do.  I think probably come home to Hawaii and then spend a little time in Utah or Maryland before going up to Utah.  The Lord is already getting me prepared because he just gave me a Polynesian companion.  (She is Tongan- not Hawaiian.) 
 
 So my new Area is felecita ward in Escondido.  It is TINY compared to Del Mar, but there is a lot of work to do.  We picked up 2 new investigators this week and I am really excited about some of our other investigators.  We have a lot of really strong members in this ward but we also have a lot of member with pretty intense needs.  I am so grateful for the church, I have been so impressed with how these ward members really try to take care of our members.  We were talking to this somewhat investigator and he was asking if there were service opportunities in the church.  He goes to another church and he hears about them all the time but then he comes to our church and doesn't hear anything about service.  First of all he never stays for 3rd hour and also I thought about our home and visit teaching programs.  The whole church is designed around service.  Anyway, he is pretty cool.  I just want to get him progressing. 
 
My new companion is Sister Tua'one.  She is the sister that I went on my last 2 exchanges with and got in a fight with on our first one.  Neither of us were that excited to get put together but we have had a lot of very open and honest talks and I think our relationship is going to be so much better.  We are both very different but she has a really good heart.  Also she is a really good teacher and that makes me so happy.  I love teaching with really good teachers. 
 
We have got a lot of good investigators and I'm absolutely expecting baptisms in the very near future.  The ward council is just amazing, and really in this area the youth is were all of the work is really at.  We have a really strong youth program which I am so excited about.  we have this one girl how is just so sweet and excited about the church.  we taught her the word of wisdom this week and she really connected with the idea that our bodies are temples  and so we need to treat them as such.  I was so grateful to hear her talk because she started to explain that her friends were starting to get into some pretty bad stuff which is sad because she is only 13.  Anyway she wants to find a new group of friends so she isn't involved.  How amazing!  She is so strong and such a role model for me.  We also have another really great investigator who is so amazing.  She is a newly wed and her husband is a member.  He just started coming back to church and she is taking the lessons.  She wants her family to be like his was growing up.  She talked about how she felt like the things we were teaching were true but she didn't understand why.  She was scared that these feelings were coming from her, because she wants it so badly.  We are going to be talking to her about faith tonight and trusting the feelings that invite her to do good.  I am very excited about the work that we have to do.
 
The members are also great!  we have a pretty full dinner calender all the way up to mid October.  I do have to laugh though.  I have had more fast food in this week then I did in a months of being in Del Mar.  Escondido and Del Mar are about 15 minutes away from each other, but at the same time they are worlds apart.  I think it's possible that I may stay here the rest of my mission.  If that is the case then I with be a south sister.  I have never served in the north of my mission ever!  I think I would like to but it is okay if I don't there is so much to do in Escondido. 
 
Oh!  on a small side note.  I have been so impressed at the mobile homes in the Escondido.  I would say that at least 1/4th of the people we work with are in mobile homes and they are so nice.  I have gone into a bunch and thought- I would love to live here!  I was in a few in vista, and they are nothing compared to the ones I have seen here.  Anyway, I think I am becoming a lover of mobile homes.
 
I'm looking through my planner and I still can't remember much from this week.  It was a bit of a blur but I am happy to be in Escondido.  I miss Del Mar a little bit but this is a good place to be.  Oh!  One last crazy story.  Sister Tua'one is very scared of dogs.  We had a fat weenier dog waddle after us once and she ran.  Well we were going to check on this less active how was very into nature and pulled up in her drive way.  Much to sister Tua'ones horror we saw a big dog in the yard eating.  I looked at it and told her not to worry.  It was not a dog.  It was a coyote.  Yes this less active was feeding the coyotes.  I have to admit that even I did not really want to get out of the car.  We honked a little and the less active came out.  She was very sweet, and told us the coyote was the nicest girl named Jamie.  We didn't stay very long at all. 
 
Anyway I love you all.  I hope to hear more from you.  Rachel, How are you doing?
 
Sister Allred

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