Thank You Heavenly Father

Hei Alle!  Where do I even begin!  My companion Søster Robbins went home on Wednesday and it was sad! I love her!  My new companion, Søster Hartley arrived in Oslo that night. I love Søster Hartley! She is 20 years old and from Oregon. She is spunky and super outgoing.  We had an amazing general conference weekend! I love general conference! Drago came to watch all sessions in his suit. I am so proud of him!   Drago's Baptism March 28, 2015 On Saturday, the other sets of sisters had a baptism! Miracles have been happening ever since Drago got baptized last week. He was the first baptism in Oslo this year and now a lot of the other investigators want to be baptized because of it. So cool!  Finding moment: I told Søster Hartley that I have always wanted to contact on this bridge that goes over the ocean to this island.. it is sooo beautiful.. and she said let do it! So we did and found a new investigator from Greece on the bridge! Yay! It was awesome.  Highlight of General Conference: Priesthood session= My favorite session. Thank you Heavenly Father.  There were a ton of talks on Marriage and Family. I think God knows what's up. I loved it!  We got to watch the last session at 10pm last night.. so that was fun and tiring.:) Tip of the day: Norway like breaks\holiday\vacationing. God Påske week = Ghost town. No one is home. Everyone goes to the mountains to stay in their cabin and ski. I am so grateful for the church and the gospel! It is true! The Book of Mormon is true! I am so thankful for a living prophet and apostles. God loves us soo much. We are so lucky. The general conference talks were inspired and if we follow their teachings we will be truly happy! That is a great promise!  Now go live it, share it, and defend it!  I love Jesus Christ! He lives! Let your light shine before men! Love, Søster Allen

My Oslo District. They were so fun.

Serve the Lord with Gladness

Wow, you have lots of Questions so I will try to answer them all.

Church was good we had two investigators come to church yesterday.

It is a lot different here in Norway compared to Texas. In Texas we had dinner appointments almost every night. We never have dinner appointments here in Norway. I eat chocolate for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.. haha the chocolate is amazing here! We cook our own meals. They don't eat much here. You can't just go out to eat because it is so expensive. I noticed they eat a lot of sweets. I bought a sushi tray the other day at the grocery store. I miss so many food that they don't have here in Norway. They don't have much. haha So I am losing weight. Shoot. I must eat more chocolate I guess. ;) They have a H&M on like ever corner in Oslo. It is kind of hilarious. We joke and say where is H&M? They have like 10 stores. I have a washer in my apartment and a rack to dry my clothes. Hopefully, I answered all of your questions.

This week was great! Norway is da best! Oslo is beautiful. We have a solid investigator with a baptismal date. He is from Croatia, so we skype with Croatian missionaries. Like I said in past emails.. Oslo is a melting pot. There are people from all over the world who live here.. so I hear so many different languages. I don't think that is helping with my Norwegian. haha.

Tangent:

I had Norwegian waffles this week for Søster Hudson's birthday. All you put on the waffles is Brown cheese and jam. It is amazing!

I had some amazing experiences street contacting this week. I believe it was Friday.. I contacted this German man that wasn't very nice and he kind of hurt my feelings, but I kept the faith! I knew because of that experience a good experience was in store.. Later that day we contacted all nice people! Not one of them was rude or mean. Out of the people we talk to we got two new investigators. One of the guys we talked to was agonist and Norwegian. We asked him if he ever prayed before. He said he had not in a long time and he forgot how. We taught him how and he was up for doing it. While he was saying the prayer I felt the spirit so strong! Ah! Afterwards we asked him how he felt. He said he felt good and he had the biggest smile on his face. We told him that what he was feeling was the Holy Ghost. I testified in norsk that it feels warm and powerful. He agreed that that was what he felt. It was awesome!

The next day we visited a norwegian member and told her about our miracle experiences. While I was telling her about my experience in HORRIBLE norsk.. she started to bawl! I thought it was because my norsk was so bad, but I guess it was because the spirit was so strong. I am so grateful for those experiences because it truly testifies to me that you don't have to be perfect in the language. All that matters is what the spirit testifies. I have to put in a lot of faith into speaking norsk and somehow it is effective. God is real.

Last night, Søster Robbins and I went street contacting and we only talked to nice people! We were able to get three numbers! It was amazing! Ah missionary work is the best! I have found this scripture to be true and how missionary work should be done: Psalms 100:2 "Serve the Lord with gladness." That is what it is all about!

It is so great to be a missionary in Norway! Spring is around the corner! God is good.

I love you all and all your uplifting messages to me! Ha en fin uke!

Love,

Søster Allen

For Pday we went to forest that looked like Harry Potter! Elder Forsberg & Elder Hurst My Swedish friend, Sandra and Elder Crump in the back Here is my awesome district and the Swedish Twins- Sandra and Emma!  I love my district! Dinner with the Rasmussens

And She's Off

And She's off.... 

Jess leaveTexas at 8:45 pm today. 

She's headed to Norway!

I am all ready to go! :) 

I am so exctied, but sad to leave Texas. 

I truly am blessed to have met the people I have met here in Texas. I will never forget it. 

This our Finnish little boyfriend. The cutest kid!

Me and sister Thornton with mustaches. obviously. 

This is our investigator Stacy! 

I am going to miss him. 

I told him I was leaving at this lesson and he said, 

"What are we going to do without Sister Allen?" 

Most humble and submissive man!

This is my Cecily! 

I love her soo much and I am going to miss her. 

She gave me her favorite teddy bear to remember her by. ;)

Booney! Ah Booney. 

He is so awesome and one of our recent converts! 

We made me a wooden carved shape of Texas.

Chris and Rose! 

Love them! 

Chris has been reactivated into the church! 

He is so solid. 

So happy for him and and his new sweet family!

Niki! 

Niki, feeds us every week! 

She is the greatest! 

She served a mission in England!

Here are some of our other investigators... just kidding.. 

Elder Dean and Elder Dillon. 

Such great missionaries! 

I will miss them. 

They served in the Humble ward with us.

I will probably miss this lady and her husband the most. 

My mama Elzinga.:) 

She and her husband are the NICEST people I have ever met. 

They LOVE missionaries and they have truly changed my life. 

I understand charity better because of them. 

Sister Elzinga and companions

I had an amazing last week in T.H.E. Mission :)  I got a blessing last week and in the blessing the Elder said that I would experience miracles my last week in Humble, Texas! Wow, that blessing sure came true!

We got a new investigator on Monday and he is really promising. He feels that the lesson on the Restoration is just what he needed in his life at this time. :)

As a zone we had a goal to flood Kingwood with Book of Mormons this week. Our companionship handed out 21 BOMS! Miracle! We accomplished our goal and so many miracles were involved in handed them out. I prayed at the beginning of the week for the confidence to  contact and hand our BOMs. God truly answered my prayer because I am was able to do it with power and authority.

We had an amazing Hour of Power Thursday night. We prayed that we would be able to pass out 6 BOMS that night.. and we did! With doing that we taught 5 lessons and got 3 return appointments. We taught this teenage boy who is agnostic and had never really thought about religion or God much. He was truly touched by our message. I encouraged him to pray to his Heavenly Father and include God in his life. I told him that God loved him and that he is a child of God. I bore testimony of the BOM and told him that this book changes lives. He was so happy we came by to give him a BOM.

We taught another young women about the BOM and she was truly touched by our message as well. This scripture came to life for me while talking to her: 1 Nephi 4:6 "And I was led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which I should do." I was talking to her and started asking her a question. I didn't know the question I was going to ask her and I was totally led by the spirit. I asked, "Have you ever wondered what the purpose of life is?" She said, Yes I want to know!  It was so amazing to experience that.

We had a wonderful Valentine's Day! We gave out Jesus cards and said Happy Valentines day to everyone. haha There was a lot of love in the air..

Yesterday was my last Sunday at the Humble Ward and it topped off the week with a cherry on top... our investigator that we have been working with all transfer came to church!! 3 of our less actives came as well! It was such a bitter sweet day. We said our goodbyes to everyone.

What I have learned in Texas about missionary work is if we truly put the Lord first and have charity for others we cannot fail. The Lord blesses us and love is reciprocated. I am so grateful to be able to be a representative of my Savior, Jesus Christ. I know He lives and I see His hand in my life and in the life of others. This gospel is true! It has been restored in its fullness. We truly have to show our obedience and appreciation for our Master. He suffered for us because He loves us. We are here on earth to learn and grow, so we can be more prepared for the life to come. Love the Savior, Love the Gospel, Love Each Other!

I love you!
Love,
Sister Allen

Twins

I WILL BE LEAVING FOR NORWAY 

NEXT MONDAY!

Me and Sister Casas went on exchanges this week and we were wearing the same thing! 

haha it was the cutest and NOT planned!

This is me and Sister Thornton at zone training. 

The zone leaders and the STL dressed up as book of mormon characters. 

Humble Texas

My address:

8455 Will Clayton Pkwy

Apt. 107

Humble, TX 77338

They call us the Humble Sisters. :) So cute.

Love,
Sister Allen

---

Hello!!!!!!

So I love Texas! I am in a place called Humble and I have two companions because I am a visa waiter.  My companions names are Sister Thornton (from Alaska and leaves in March) and Sister Mulivai (from Hawaii got here three months ago). I love them! We all get along well. 

Sister Mulivai, SIster Thornton, & Jess

So I have soo much to say, but soo little time. I get an hour a day for language study, so that is good. Sister Horner is in my district, so I get to see her at least twice a week and have language study with her. 

The church in Texas is amazing and soo missionary minded. The members are so involved with the missionaries and the work. We have a member feed us every night for dinner. 

Funny Story: So Sister Thornton is a Sister Training leader, so I got to go with her to Spanish land Friday-Saturday. So guess what? I taught two lessons in spanish and gave a Spanish book of mormon out..hahaha then that night we went to a spanish baby shower. The spanish culture is soo nice. We got there and the lady having a baby came up to me and kissed me on the check. The cutest. 

Missionary work is fun! If I would have known this before I came out.. I would have come out a lot sooner. Missionary work is very busy, but it's good to be busy and it's good to be doing GOOD busy things. haha People love the missionaries out here. Most people here are religious and believe in Jesus Christ. We already have so much in common. Not gonna lie, contacting freaks me out, but my companion said that I think contacting is awkward for a reason.. they will diffidently remember us. 

I never realized how often miracles happen every day! People are so prepared. God put them in our paths for a reason. Ah the church is true. 

My birthday was so great yesterday! All the missionaries in the district wished me happy birthday via text and left messages. I said the closing prayer in Sacrament meeting in Norsk. It was pretty cool. We have this AWESOME family in the ward that put on a birthday dinner for me and made me a cake. It was such a great birthday. 

Thought for the day:

Today I was studying on how to find people and the word "minister" came to mind. Any time I hear that word I think of Jesus Christ and the life he lived when he was on the earth. Part of our baptismal covenant with God is to take upon Jesus Christ's name and mourn with those that mourn and comfort those that stand in need of comfort. Anytime we talk to someone it should be with charity and with Christlike love. I am so grateful for the Savior and the Life that he lived. It makes me want to be a better person.

Hope you are all doing well! 

Love you all!

Love,

Soster Allen