Letter Aug. 26

Hola Familia y Amigos!!!

Como estan??? Se amo muchisimo!!!

Thank you Jake Fornelli for your dearelder. Thank you to Sister Reeve, Emily Gates, Tiffany, Brittany and Sammy for the emails this week.

Well, I am here in CO. After, getting up at 1am last monday morning, driving an hour to the Mexico City airport, trying to get through customs without knowing any of the spanish vocab except for gospel related stuff, giving the book of mormon to a Mexican in the airport at 4am, then flying the Dallas and being very surprised to hear so much english, then flying to Denver. Seeing the Mission president as we excited the airport, taking a picture with essentially having no sleep, then driving an hour, have 4 hours of training, meeting my companion, visiting an inactive member, and then coming home to the apartment to find out we were locked out and sitting on the lawn in front of the apartment for an hour with our zone leaders as we tried to fanagle our way in. Finally, 10 minutes before lights out, we got it and I am here and I love it!!!

I am in Greeley CO, in the only official spanish branch in the entire mission. My companion’s name is Hermana Vargha, she has only been in the field for 6 weeks longer than I have but she is amazing!! I love her. She is a 2nd year nursing student at BYU. I think she is just what I needed to start my mission out on a good foot. Neither of us have perfect spanish yet but the branch is super nice and helpful.

So, we have a few investigators and we found one new one while tracking this week. Her name is Dolores and I think she is great! She seemed really ready to her the Gospel and I hope that as we continue teaching her she will remain receptive and open.

We also visit with a lot of less actives. Our branch could totally be a ward if everyone was active. We have a 7 page ward directory but only enough people come to church each sunday to fill the relief society room for sacrament. Anyway, we have visited a lot of less-actives and all of them love the missionaries. We have 4 hermanas serving in our branch and so we try to all visit at least one less active each day. All of them love having the missionaries over and I hope that we can help them become more active. I love them all. I feel God’s love for people so much! It is so powerful. One cool experience was when we were visiting a less active sister. She had been going to church for a couple weeks and seemed to be doing pretty well. We talked to her this week and she just started sobbing. She said she didn’t want to go to church anymore because she felt like the people at church rejected her. She just didn’t want that in her life and wanted to go to a different church. (keep in mind, this was all in spanish and she was crying so i am pretty sure that this is accurate but I am not 100% positive). Anyway, I started to cry too because I just felt such love for her. I felt God’s love for her so strong, I had known her for 15 minutes but I really wanted to just sit with her and let her cry and talk to her all night. God’s love for people is so strong. I know I cannot even fathom it really but I hope that I can continue to have a little taste of it as I meet and teach more people.

The members in the branch are AMAZING!! They are seriously some of the most humble and kind and faithful people I know. We are in a very poor area, most of our members live in trailer park type homes. Some are in and out of work a lot and yet all 4 of the sisters in the ward get fed EVERY SINGLE NIGHT! Every night a family will feed us, they will cook some amazing mexican food and desert and drinks and everything. They will spend hours sometimes cooking food to feed us. The craziest thing is, we have 2 elders that live near by but are assigned to the singles ward so they hardly ever get fed, so the women in our ward invite them to eat too. They are some of the most wonderful and most generous people I have ever met. When we eat, we do not eat with the family. We come to their houses and they serve and feed us first. Their families do not leave until after we leave. Typically, they feed us and just sit and talk to us. They always thank us for coming and say it is such a blessing for us to be in their home. I feel so humbled when I am with anyone from our ward. They are truly some celestial people. I cannot even fully undertstand it. They just love God so much and want to serve His missionaries. Anyway, if you read this, go feed the missionaries in your area, or give them a water bottle when you see them.

 

I went to church for the first time this week. I didnt really understand any of the messages shared but I did catch at least a theme in each so that is good. I know the spanish will come in time. We are also part of a really cool program called Just serve where we do 10 hours of service to local projects in the area. We are not allowed to proselyte during these times but I love serving! It is so fun and I feel so much love for the Savior when I do so. We work at a catholic shelter, Habitat restore (like DI but only furniture), and Clothing Bank, a Food bank, We teach english classes, and we adopted a street. All of the service is awesome and sometimes very entertaining. Most of the regular volunteers are criminals working off their crimes. They always seemed surprised when we tell them we are there just to serve. A lot of them are really nice people and don’t worry Glenbron, violent criminals are not allowed at most of the establishements. I love serving and I just feel such love for all the people I serve, even when I cannot share anything about the Gospel. I know that God loves them and I know that He wants them to feel that love and I feel so blessed to be able to share in that.

 

Anyway, I haven’t gotten any mail from anyway yet but I know you are all very busy people. With mail, there are some things that need to happen. If you are going to send a package, send it priority or 1st class mail only. If you do not, I may not get it for weeks because they cannot forward those to my apt. If you are sending letters send them to:

 

Sister Allyson Mehner

Coloardo Fort Collins Mission

5285 McWhinney Blvd. Suite 100

Fort Collins, Colorado 80538

 

This is the mission home and they will forward letters to me as I move from area to area.

 

Also, Listen to the song “Homeward Bound” It is a pioneer hymn that I heard the CCM and I loved it!

 

Oh, one of the highlights of my week was seeing the groundbreaking for the Fort Collins CO temple. We didn’t get to actually be there but it was broadcasted and that was really cool.

 

One of the Hermanas serving in my branch is from Southbend, Indiana. When I asked her if she was familiar with Muncie, she said she grew up there. When I asked her if she knew the Roush family, her jaw dropped. She said she attended Matt’s funeral in indiana and that her mom and Tiffany Roush were good friends. Her name is Makall Smith. I love how small the world is. She is an awesome sister and I love her! that was really cool.

 

Also, Didi and Shannon and Everyone please read the ensign article from April 2013 called “Equal Partnership in Marriage.” I read it this morning and I loved it. It will be onlds.org

Some of my favorite scriptures from this week were:

Alma 37:6-7
D&C 54:10

Alma 7:11-13

3 Nephi 27:21

Galations 5:22-25

You should read them. They are golden scriptures. These are the ones that we have been sharing with people a lot this week.

 

Please also tell Grandma Mehner and Aunt Betty and Sharon’s Mom and Nancy from Montana that I am praying for them. I am praying for them all the time.

 

Well Family and friends, I love you. I will write in a week. I don’t mean to sound needy but please please please write letters. They are my favorite thing in the world

Be strong. Pray Hard. Be a useful engine for the Lord.

 

Hermana Mehner