So I busted out the winter coat this week because it is getting cold! I don't know what I'm going to do when it starts snowing and turns into winter. I'll just layer a lot and hope for the best! It was a little rainy this weekend, and usually I don't mind rain, but it was quite chilly. Boo. But I know how to prepare for it now! Sister Metro and I wore boots and leggings and big coats yesterday and then it turned out to not even be that cold haha.
Ok I attached a bunch of pictures, so I will explain them some. Ok the first 6 are from last P-day. We went to this cute park where the Reformers Wall is. There were also these big chess boards and a bunch of old men playing chess on there, so of course, we decided to take some pictures. There was also a cool university and a library by the park so we explored around there for a bit. There's one in there of me and Paola on the bus, and then a few from her baptism! It was seriously so so beautiful. She was really nervous and antsy before, but afterwards she told us that she just felt so happy and calm and at peace. She was baptized by a man named Javier Miranda, who was just baptized about a month and a half ago. How cool is that? Haha and she had to get baptized three times because she didn't go all the way under the first couple. It was so good though. Two ladies from the ward gave the talks and I could actually understand most of it! They were so lovely. And then she was confirmed the next day by Elder Zarate, my district leader. Bah it just made me realize how incredible missionary work is and how wonderful God's plan is. Oh and the last picture is me by the poster for the Lausanne marathon, which is on Halloween... do yall want to come run that one?? Ok actually, some of them aren't attaching so I will try sending them on a separate email.
So my assignment in the Spanish ward is just for now. The only Spanish assignments in the mission are a sister's equipe and an elder's equipe in Geneva. They don't call missionaries to our mission for just Spanish speaking though, so basically, anyone with any Spanish experience is probably going to be used here. So I probably won't be here any longer than any other area, but you never know, right? President said also that he only wants us using our language study time for French, so that makes it even harder to learn Spanish. I study it sometimes during lunch and stuff, and I'm picking up stuff here and there, but I still can't really contribute anything at all to the lessons. Except my prayers haha. BUT I did actually have a legit Spanish conversation the other day. After French class on Saturday, we went straight over to the church for Paola's baptism, and some of the people from French class (who are all hispanic, except for one guy from Macedonia named Mavludin who we love dearly) came with us (side note- among all the missionaries at her baptism, we had 8 investigators there...cool right?) and I talked to this guy named Maximo for the entire 20 minute tram ride. It was difficult and we probably were not understanding each other at all, but we communicated!
It's actually been a pretty cool week. On Saturday we were doing some contacting out in the rain, and we stopped this guy named Marian and talked to him for awhile. He said that the only reason he stopped to talk to us was because he imagined his daugther doing what we are doing and he would want people to talk to her. But we know that it was the Spirit giving him that idea. Anyways, I gave him a Book of Mormon and we told him the address to the Church. Then on Sunday night, we got a phone call from him saying that he wanted to come to Church but had something come up, but he really wants to come next week. Bah! Heavenly Father definitely answers our prayers when we show him we are willing to work, even out in the rain.
We did a lot of contacting yesterday too. Haha I stopped this grumpy old man who was not interested at all. But then, a little bit later, after I had forgotten what he really looked like, I accidently stopped him again and he as like 'Encore?!!' (again?!!). Oops! We just said sorry and walked off laughing a lot about it. Can I just tell you that contacting is actually really fun? We had a goal yesterday to give away everything we had brought with us, which was 33 cards, 9 brochures, and 3 Book of Mormons (1 in French, 1 in Portuguese, and 1 in Spanish). So we were on fire, just talking to everyone. We didn't get through everything, BUT we still gave away a lot of stuff, the Portuguese and Spanish Bof Ms, and we added three new amis (investigators) and got a couple of interested people too. Yeah! We are trying to find a family to teach, but we know that Heavenly Father will guide our efforts when we actually put forth the efforts.
(Ok side note - we are in this little internet cafe and ABBA just came on the radio....brilliant)
So I LOVE reading all of your emails! We only get an hour for email, so what we usually do is skim through all of the emails that we received, then print them out and read them later so we can use most of our time for writing. So if you emailed a question or something and I don't respond to it until the next week, that is why. But I try to read enough so the I can respond to the emails that you just sent. It sounds like everyone is doing so well! I'm so glad that you had such a good birthday Dad! I was thinking about you all day. I told the missionaries here it was your birthday, so they were thinking of you too. And it sounds like the Oktoberfest 10k went well? Will, you didn't wear your leiderhosen?? Boo. Was anyone dressed up? And how many people ended up running it? Ah I miss races actually! Remember how I was excited that the Steel Days was the last one I had to help time for a couple years? I actually miss it! haha.
Are yall excited about Halloween? (ah another side note -- a BEATLES song just came on the radio...I love this place...don't think of me as a bad missionary for listening to these songs haha) Your costumes sound great...you will have to send me pictures. Soeur Metro and I are thinking about dressing up as Sherlock Holmes and Watson because our rain coats kind of look like detective coats, of course. Speaking of Soeur Metro, she is great. You know why? Because she busted out a line from That Thing You Do this week. I knew that you all would think highly of her because of that. We have been having a lot of fun lately. We've been listening to Christmas music lately because there are only 67 days until Christmas!
Speaking of that, I realized that almost all of the Christmas music that I put on that little mp3 player is not there anymore! I don't know what happened. Can you do me a huge favor and burn all of the MoTab stuff and the Mannheim stuff onto CDs and send them to me? You can use my money to buy the CDs and the postage. I would love you forever. Actually, if you haven't sent the contacts yet (thank you so so much for ordering those by the way!) maybe you can send them all together? There are a couple of other things that might be nice too... So the bar soap here is weirdie, and I might enjoy some good old fashioned Dove soap. And maybe some more cutesie thick tights (apparently we can have mellow designs on them now) because they are so expensive here and some Bath and Body spray, because mine is all out. Also, Soeur Metro requested apple cider, but I won't be bothered if you don't send that haha. And I don't know why the package I sent hasn't arrived yet... bah I hope it gets to you!!
Ok well I just hope you know how much I love you. I'm so so grateful to have been brought up in a family that knows the truth. Thank you Mom and Dad for teaching us the gospel and raising us right. I seriously am so grateful for that. You all are great examples to me and I appreciate all of your prayers and support. Have an amazing week! I LOVE YOU!
Love,
Allie
P.S. Go Giants! Keep me updated, ok? Also, Rachel, congratulations on that scholarship, that's so awesome! Also, Kami's email address is kamian.coppins@myldsmail.net and she would like to know if you could forward these emails to her. I love you all alot! Hopefully the second email with the other pictures works!
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