Santa Fe Week 12

This is it! The last time you’ll get an email from me.

This week was the best. Our baptism on Saturday was THE BEST my whole mission. Brother Renato the man that speaks Tagalog cried in his testimony after it was so beautiful. Then Brother Cabiles the elect man with the kids that also got baptized told the story of how we found him at a really hard time and how he’s found such peace now and he bore his testimony of the Restoration. It was AMAZING. All 6 were baptized and confirmed 🙂 it was a great way to end off the mission. We had 11 baptisms total for the month of July.

Before, I really didn’t want to serve a mission. I just figured it wasn’t for me. But when i prayed and asked Heavenly Father if i should go, I felt really strongly like I needed to go. So i did. And I’m so, so grateful for all of the experiences I’ve had on my mission. I also really didn’t want to serve in a third world country. I was really scared when I received my call to the Philippines. But Heavenly Father truly knows us much better than we know ourselves. I’m SO grateful I was called to serve in the Philippines Bacolod Mission. I couldn’t have picked a better place for myself. I love the people here so much. They very easily will be the thing I miss most.

One of my favorite things about the mission is the PERSPECTIVE that you gain. My testimony is the same as it was before I left. I still know that we have a Father in Heaven who loves us. Jesus Christ is our Savior. The Book of Mormon is the word of God. Joseph Smith was called in this dispensation to restore Christ’s church to earth just as it has been restored through God’s prophets since the beginning of time. Thomas S. Monson is God’s prophet on Earth today. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints is Christ’s church in these latter days and has the authority needed to administer saving ordinances that will help us return to God’s presence and be happy for eternity with our families. I loooooove the church. My testimony is my most prized possession. I’m so grateful for that knowledge. It is precious. But the perspective I’ve gained on the mission, seeing peoples lives as someone set apart from the world, it has just deepened my understanding of those truths.

The best habit I’ve learned on the mission is REAL scripture STUDY. If you fall asleep reading your scriptures, you’re not doing it right. THE SCRIPTURES WILL BLOW YOUR MIND when you read them with the Spirit and a great desire to have your understanding enlightened. My favorite thing to do in the whole world now is to read the scriptures. I love it.

Thank you all for accepting my emails every week for the last year and a half. I’m sorry if they were too long or too short or too spiritual or not spiritual enough. I’m speaking to a broad audience here 🙂 But to those of you reading my emails that are not members of the church. Those nerdy missionaries you all see on bikes or walking around are holding the most precious information you could ever hear in your entire lives. Let them in. It will change your life and the lives of your children and their children and so forth. The message they are sharing is not just about another religion or some weird beliefs or philosophy or whatever. It is reality. It’s why we’re all here. It’s about who we are and what we’re doing and where we’re going. I love you all. And I love Jesus Christ. I love His gospel. I love the Church.

Everyone come to my homecoming talk on August 14 at 1pm at the Mormon Church by Stagecoach park. I LOVE YOU ALL. Thanks for all of your support. See you in a couple days 🙂

Santa Fe Week 11

This week we planned a wedding.

It was stressful but fun too and they were really happy. Then Sister Edna got dunked right after. It was sweet.

Sister Nemaia sometimes has a hard time reciting the first vision in Ilonggo and sometimes gets the words mixed around. This week she said that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ were standing on Joseph Smith’s head. It was hilarious hahahhahaha.

One of our 40 year old investigators said that when his mom was pregnant, she gave birth to 3 frogs… super weird. Like who’s lying?

Biggest miracle of the week… our long time progressing investigator that i love but he kinda drives me nuts sometimes… he’s like a 60 year old man. His name is Enrico. He FINALLY said he wants to be baptized. We explained him the Restoration to him like 6 different ways and he finally got it. It was so happy. So he might be baptized this Saturday or maybe next month when I’m not here anymore depends on if he’s ready for Saturday. Pray for Enrico.

The mission is sweet and I only have one more email to send so stay tuned for next week. Love you all!

Sister Allegretti

Santa Fe Week 9

This week was coool.

We saw this gnarly motorcycle accident and i almost passed out. Literally. We walked up to the street and there were people standing around because it happened like the second before we got there. The guys face was all bloody and the chick was like sitting with her legs all crumpled up just like in shock in the road. Then she stood up for a second and then passed out and they were like checking her pulse. It was so gnarly. Then i started blacking out and my breathing got all shallow and i was like NO i cant pass out here are other people that actually need help so i walked as fast as i could to the bench and sat there it was cray. That was the first time ive ever seen anything like that in real life. I could never be a doctor.

So the Nunez family got baptized on Saturday woooo. 3 of them. And this Saturday sister Elaine is getting baptized. Then next next Saturday sister Edna is getting married and baptized. Then my last Saturday there are 6 people that are scheduled to be baptized woooooo.

By the way Sister Arque transferred last week. I don’t know how i forgot to write that in my email. My trainee got stolen from me. I felt like a mother whose newborn child was ripped from her arms. For real it was pretty sad. But my new comp is Sister Nemaia. Shes from a really small island in the Pacific Islands called Niue. There’s only like 1300 people that live there. She’s super funny and we get along really well im glad she will be my last companion. She’s really good at English but her first language is Niuean.

But that presents a big problem because two of our really awesome investigators don’t know Ilonggo cause they are Tagalog speaking. And Sister Arque always took the lead in teaching cause she’s super Tagalog. But Sister Nemaia knows like one word in Tagalog. So i have been teaching whole lessons by myself in a language i hardly know. But it’s a miracle cause they’ve gone great. I extended a baptismal date to them in Tagalog it was wild. And brother Renato accepted woooo he’s GOLDEN his wifes muslim so she said she wants to investigate more first.

Also our elect family the Cabiles family accepted a baptismal date too for July 30 yay.

The giant lizard is still hiding in our house. It hasn’t shown itself yet. And we killed like three more giant spiders.

That’s all. Love you guys.

Sister Allegretti

Pictures: (yay!!!)

this is my trainee, Sister Arque, and some other random Elders

this is sister Rina, Sister Snow and I’s convert from my first area. we LOVE her and i just ran into her the other day it was a crazy coincidence because she lives really far away

Santa Fe Week 8

Happy birthday to our beloved America. I’m currently repping a white and red striped shirt with a blue and white pokadot skirt.

This week was so fun.

We met this man that is the definition of elect. We were walking kinda in the middle of nowhere by this river and we thought there were no more houses but we kept walking just to make sure. There was one more house so we called (you dont knock on doors here you just yell “tag balay”) Then a man came out and invited us in and he was there with his children. And we shared and told him our purpose as missionaries and shared a little summary about the Restoration and he said that he had been to some different churches but that he had been searching and he felt like God had sent us to him. It was the sickest lesson ever. Then he came to church on Sunday. I literally was jumping up and down at church when i saw him. So cool. His name is Julius. And he wears a really cool blue brazilian soccer jersey and he just looks so wise.

We killed a giant spider in our house.

We also have a GIANT GECKO (its called a toko here) in our house… it’s living in one of the rooms upstairs. I feel like it’s a little demon hiding in our house. It’s actually really cool though but sometimes it surprises me and scares me.

This week it rained SO HARD. We were walking in crazy floods and walking up stairs that were like a waterfall then the power went out haha such an adventure.

Craziest thing that happened i got chased down by a carabao (water buffalo). It started walked towards me and Sister Arque yelled my name and she freaked me out so i started running then the carabao ran after me but it was on a leash and i was faster so it didn’t kill me.

Big news: I’m the first “SDL” in all of history hahaha. I’m the district leader for our district hahahhaa. Because all the elders in our district are either zone leaders, APs, or trainees. So I am the new district leader. I just collected KI’s and gave a training at district meeting last week. Just workin my way up to be the first SAP. Just kidding.

K that’s all for now. Love you all. Sorry i probably will never send pictures again but you can all see them in like 4 weeks 🙂

Sister Allegretti

Santa Fe Week 7

This week was seriously awesome because a ton of people came to church on Sunday! Yay! Our awesome family that is getting baptized came, the Nunez family. And they brought their grandpa, Manuel, who also accepted an invitation to be baptized yesterday. Our investigator Edna (their neighbor) also came to church again. And our other investigator (also their neighbor) Enrico came again too! Then the niece of our recent convert, Elaine, came to church again and accepted a baptismal date.

We also just started teaching this newly wed couple from Manila (they are totally Tagalog so the lessons are completely in Tagalog its fun). They are living with this really awesome member and they are a referral and they are really interested they seem really golden so far. But the lessons are a struggle because im not very good at speaking Tagalog mostly because im just really embarrassed to speak it. Also im so used to teaching in Ilonggo its really hard to switch. They told me to just speak English because they can understand English so I tried that but i totally was speaking in half Ilonggo and didn’t realize it. So everyone get ready for when i come home because I don’t know how to speak English anymore.

We also are teaching a part member family the woman is less active the husband is not a member. They’re not married but were helping them get married right now and then the husband, Jimboy, is going to be baptized. He should be my last baptism because his baptismal date is July 30. He couldn’t come to church Sunday because he had work but he’s going to come next week. And his wife came :).

So we are seeing miracles in our area. Straight up miracles. A couple weeks ago we were kinda struggling but right now were planning to hopefully have 10 baptisms in July. Crazy. Such blessings.

Also my homecoming talk in church is on August 14 so everyone should come. Kara Sheffield is also speaking so it’ll be a great reunion. 6 weeks… But we’ll be plenty busy until then. Love you all!

Sister Allegretti

Santa Fe Week 6

This week was cooooool

Our investigator we’ve been inviting to church for a while now finally came. It was cool. And he really liked it. But our super awesome family didn’t come because of unfortunate circumstances but they said they will come next week. We’ve got 6 with pretty solid potential to be baptized in July so hopefully they will continue to progress.

But speaking of the super awesome family we had one of my favorite lessons this week. We were teaching the 17 year old daughter and we were talking about how she liked church and if she felt she had received an answer to her prayer. And she was sharing about how before her older brother and her weren’t that close but ever since they had started coming to church and stuff they had been talking and had been bonding and spending more time together and that they were so much closer now. I was so happy while she was describing her experience because it reminded me of Nick and I and how much joining the church made us closer. It is so cool that we got to help them experience that because it’s so special to me.

So don’t freak out but i think i have some sort of flesh eating virus haha. But for real. Either that or bed bugs. I have super painful itchy bumps all over. So that sucks. I keep taking benedrill so im real tired. Also think i have UTI. It’s fine. My body has had enough of the Philippines. The flesh is weak but the spirit is willing.

Earlier we played extreme ping pong nascar edition. It was intense. Super dangerous. When you hit the ball you can’t be holding the paddle, you had to throw the paddle in the air to hit it. And we we’re passing the paddles amongst team mates. It got a little wild. I got a video but these computers don’t like my camera.

K love you guys bye,

Sister Allegretti

Santa Fe Week 5

This week was cooooool.

We found this golden family. The mom is a less active. She has a son thats 19, a daughter thats 17, a son thats 10, and a baby. They came to church and the kids are so cool and i love them and they accepted baptismal dates for july and im so excited for them. Were trying to get the ward to fellowship them so that they wanna come back to church and will stay.

We moved houses and our new house is huge and ugly and its the hosting apartment so a ton of sisters are gunna be sleeping in our house later because theres a meeting here in bacolod tomorrow. Woooo.

Theres a dead lizard on the floor but i dont know what to do with it.

Sorry theres no pictures again. But im doin great. Love you all!

Sister Allegretti

Santa Fe Week 4

We have an investigator named Bin Laden. He said that’s what his mom has always called him because he was born on 9/11. He’s super nice though.

Rodney was baptized! Yay! It was hilarious. He is a really cute skinny bald old man. In the font, they told him to plug his nose before he got dunked. He pointed to his forehead and we were like no, your nose. And then he pointed to the tip of his nose. And we were like no plug your nose. Then he stuck his finger up his nose like he was picking it HAHHAA. It was so cute.

So that was Sister Arque’s first baptism. Later that day, it was raining and we were walking on the side of the road and there was a HUGE puddle and a car came zooming by and a huge tidal wave came and soaked her. She was so mad at the driver hahahha and i was just cracking up. She got baptized too. So happy for her.

It also was her birthday this week and we celebrated it was a good time.

We went bowling last pday and i got 3rd place again.

We have a HUGE toko (which is a giant lizard) in front of our house. I had only heard there was one but the other night it came out of hiding. It was so gnarly. It’s huge. It looks so cool. But if they bite you they wont let go till you kill it so gotta keep a good distance.

One of the elders investigators got married this week and i was her make up artist hehe. She actually looked really beautiful. It was fun. The elders did her hair and her bouquet hahaha.

It wont let me send pictures. So lame cause i have a ton of good pictures now but it wont let me.

Love you,

Sister Allegretti

Santa Fe Week 3

I have like no time to write this cause the Elder sitting next to me is telling me the hour is up.

This week was cool. It rained a lot. I think rainy season has started again.

We have a baptism this Saturday I’m excited. But other than that we don’t have any really solid baptisms set yet so I’m a little stressed about that.

K i gotta go haha love you all

Sister Allegretti

Santa Fe Week 2

This week was sweet.

So my new companion’s name is Sister Arque. She is from Palawan which is the prettiest island in the Philippines and the place i want to vacation to in the future. She speaks Tagalog. It’s good because I’ve been studying Tagalog for the past like 6 months so I’ve been able to practice my Tagalog with her. She came pre-trained. All i have to do is teach her Ilonggo because she’s already a really good missionary. It will be a really easy training.

Our area is doing well. We have met a lot of people with great potential to be baptized. We are just trying to get organized so that we can help them all prepare to be baptized and set up weekly baptisms for the next couple months. My last two transfers has officially started. When my trainee is done with training I’ll be going home. So crazy. It still feels so far away though. I got a tentative flight plan. I’m flying to Manila. Then to Tokyo. Then straight to San Diego and I should get there on August 4th at 11am or something. But that’s not set it could totally change.

It’s so different being assigned in the city. We ride on jeepneys instead of tricycles. I hate them hahaha. It’s so hard to get on and off of them because I’m so tall and you have to like ninja crouch but my back is already on the top of the jeep when im bent over. It’s real hard. But I’ve been getting better at it.

I have pictures i want to send but its not letting me upload them :(. Sorry.

Love you all have a great week!

Sister Allegretti