Week 4: Hola Amigos!

Me and my awesome District!! :) 

Hola amigos! Week 4 down, 11 days to go In the mtc! This past week has been super fun and I've learned so much, and there's been so many awesome things happening. 

So last Thursday, me and my companion got called as zone leaders which is way cool! Not really a ton we have to do since were in the mtc, besides like getting sacrament ready and checking on districts! It's awesome though cause we've gotten to talk more often with the president here and get to know him more. That dude is seriously so cool. 

We went to the Mexico city temple again last week and that was so awesome. I did the session in full Spanish and actually wasn't as lost as I thought I'd be which is cool. The celestial room there is honestly beautiful, so if you are ever in Mexico city, go! I will say though, the smell on the drive there and Mexico city itself are not the best. Definitely not really planning on coming back here for a while haha. The mtc is beautiful but right outside the walls it's just pure mayhem.

Me helping out Esteban in the CCM kitchen!

It's funny how much you come to appreciate Sundays when you're at the mtc. I used to always hate waking up early to go to church, but I loveeeee Sundays here. They're such a spiritual boost, and a relieving break from Spanish haha. This past Sunday we had a combined sacrament meeting with all the missionaries (about 500, we had just gotten 75 that past Tuesday). It was so awesome and our president talked for the second hour. His lesson was amazing, and one thing that really stood out to me was a quote he had. It said "the lord uses the unlikely, to accomplish the incredible" this is legit my favorite quote I've heard since getting here. There's no way I'd be doing this without the Lord's help, and no way I'd be able to learn as much Spanish as I have without the spirit there for me. 

So this week me and my boy elder dimond have been going to the gym at 5 am to get a workout in before getting ready at 6:30. I don't know how I wake up, because I legit would sleep til like 12 right before I came out here and go to bed at 4 haha. It's awesome though and definitely a good stress reliever, plus I've become way good friends with elder dimond. He's trying to convince me to go to byu with him after the mish, but I love my aggies so we'll see! 

I am a master at eggs! haha! we helped make food for 300 missionaries that day!

Last week, we had a goal to speak only spanish, and memorize these things in Spanish: missionary purpose, baptismal invitation, first vision, d&c chapter 4, d&c 20:37, moroni 10:4-5, and 3 more scriptures at least 4 lines long and lesson applicable. It definitely was tough but we all got it done! The best part is we get churros from outside the mtc from president! Super hyped haha. I legit have seen my Spanish get a bunch better because of all that though, which is cool.

It's been really raining down here, can you tell? This is Elder Nybo..he's hilarious!

On Monday, we were teaching one of our investigators, jair. He brought his wife to our lesson, and we had been planning on teaching him the last point of the plan of salvation. Little did we know, he wasn't actually married to the girl next to him, but they had 3 kids together and called each other spouses. So pretty much we scrapped our lesson plan and just free balled it and tried to explain why it's important to be legally married. That was rough but much needed, and we got our point across decently well. The wife was a strong Catholic too, so we talked about prayer for quite a while, and towards the end of the lesson, I had a pretty strong impression to just share why prayer is so important to me and when I've used it to answer big questions. I told them my experience before deciding to serve a mission, and right when I started, immediately cried. I was able to bear my testimony to them still, but it felt like the spirit was taking over for me. It was awesome to wrap up the lesson with that, cause I was feeling pretty flustered from trying to scramble and find scriptures about marriage. 

Well one last thing here before I sign off! Our president told us this week, to ask ourselves a question every day. That question is "am I thinking big enough?" We can always set bigger goals for ourselves, whether it's in our jobs, our sports, school, or most importantly, our spiritual edification. If we don't push ourselves, we are never going to progress. Some pressure is good for us! 

Well I love you all, and I'll talk to ya soon! Email me peeps!

Love,

Elder Allen

P.S.  a couple of videos for you all ....dance battle and dropping a beat! :) haha