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| STRAIGHT OUTTA CHICAGO WEST SIDE. 'Y'all better WATCH OUT, cause we got some serious moves! 👊🏾 and we gonna use our Books of Mormon too. |
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| Bert & Joey |
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| Bro & Sis. Mulnix |
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| My awesome district !!! |
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| The Ensigns. Sis Ensign is the sassiest elderly lady I've ever met. I love it! Bro Ensign, her son, reminds me of Bob Fergy. The Ensigns are awesome! |
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| Creepy lady whose eyes always follow you |
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| Enjoying my last ice cream in Freeport |
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I LOVE ART! THANK YOU BROTHER GEDDES for helping me appreciate it
more fully! It was so cool cause I saw so many things I learned about in art history. I was basically fan girling over art.... It was great! |
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| Sis Kenney & |
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| Goodbye Freeport |
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| Brother stepp , he's the coolest! |
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| Aaron's baptism was a success!
WOW! I cannot believe I'm training! I'm humbled and honored and nervous all at the same time. The Lord has given me this call, but I also am kinda nervous. I wanna do my very best to teach this missionary, but I still kinda feel inadequate myself. But I know that I know enough for now and I'll try to do better each day.
😳😳😳😳 WHAT THE FUN?! I thought I was still a baby missionary. Haha jk. But I still feel like it most days.
Usually the assistants call us for transfer calls, but if you're training presidente calls. We were anxiously waiting for the call on Saturday and it's about 10 minutes from having to be in bed. Then BOOM.... Presidente calls .... Kinda ironic cause Sister Turner (my companion) joked about me training before. She said even though I may not have been out super long, I am "way more prepared than most missionaries". I said "Willis you crazy!" She kept saying, "no you're an amazing missionary & you seem like you've been on your mission forever. You could do it." Then I again said "Willis so you understand the words coming outta my mouth?" Geez haha
I am pretty nervous cause its a lot of responsibility, but I know I can do it! I know the Lord is on my side. I can do this. I just cannot believe I'm actually training a new missionary. I feel like that was just me yesterday but I also feel like I've been doing this for YEARS now. It's just a weird feeling all around. Very humbling...I am grateful.
There was a super less active lady we were working with for the past 5 months and within the last 2 months she's been to church every week. At the beginning she was super negative and very harsh on herself, but now she's always smiling and saying hello to people. She's one of the sweetest people I've ever met. She told me yesterday when I was telling her goodbye, "thank you for not giving up on me! I've had so many missionaries come, but you never gave up on me. Thank you!" Oh my goodness... that hit me so hard (in a good way of course). Because if I don't bring anyone else into the gospel or do anything else while I'm on my mission I know I helped Sister Merkle come back and it made a difference for her. A BIG difference, because she's always at church now and is super happy and positive. I've seen a huge change, and I couldn't be happier to see her pushing and walking through the challenges she's facing. She amazes me! Planting seeds is so very important! Not giving up on people is important. Even if we have to stop teaching the person...as we continue to keep them in our thoughts and prayers and do things for them...miracles happen. I know this to be true because I've seen it within people like Sister Merkle.
Oh man the Reid's made us the best southern meal the other night.
And Bert made us her apple dumplings that are totally to DIE for! And now I have the secret recipe...I'm stoked! Since it was my last week Bert cooked steak and other good fixin's just for me. Oh the people in the Freeport area rock!
We were listening to the song " Beautiful to Me" by Mercy River and part of the song says, "has anyone told you that you're beautiful to me?" It really hit me...a lot of times when we look in the mirror we rag on ourselves and wish pieces of us inside and outside were different. We wish we could be something we are not. We beat ourselves up when we make mistakes. We sometimes lose sight of ourselves and often feel we're inadequate. Nelson Mandela once said:
"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. You're playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
We are ALL children of God and He LOVES us a LOT...more than we could ever imagine. He sees the bigger picture. He sees our potential and our full beauty...inner and outer. We often look too far for the beauty & talents right within us. So when you feel inadequate...when you feel like you're not handsome or beautiful, first of all do what Brigham Young said: "If you have a bad thought about yourself tell it to go to hell because that is exactly where it came from." Then pray and ask God for that help to see yourself as the wonderful and beautiful sons and daughters of God that you each are because He will NEVER EVER let us forget that we are "beautiful to him". DONT let the world drag you down. STAY STRONG because God is ALWAYS on your side. With Christ's help through his Atonement you can let go of the bad thoughts & feelings about yourself because HE wants to help you. So if no one has told you today, "YOURE ALL BEAUTIFUL"! Remember...it doesn't matter what we look like on the outside as it does on the inside. When life gets too hard to stand, kneel and ask Father in Heaven for help. HE LOVES YOU.
THIS also reminds me of this cool mask we saw at the art museum here it was entitled, "BEHIND THE MASK". I absolutely loved it because the artist talked about how as humans we "hide" so much of who we are behind our own masks. We SHOULDN'T be ashamed of that because we are each so special and unique and beautiful regardless of our past or who we are now or what we've done.
So the ultimate question is: "WHAT IS BEHIND YOUR MASK?" Give it to the Lord. Who are you really?
Aaron was baptized on Saturday! Holy cow, I've never once in my life seen someone so prepared! He loves the Lord and is working towards the temple. His wife is having some interest, so that's good!
CHUNKS GRANDKID: (no joke)
We met Shawn and his wife. They met with missionaries in the past.
We thought we'd try them again with a short "get to know you", a video BUT NOPE. 3 hours later he's told us his family's WHOLE life story way back to his deceased ancestors. He was like Chunk off "Goonies". He just told us everything! haha it's crazy how much people trust full time missionaries with just everything.
I know this gospel is true. I am so grateful to be training and learning over and over again the importance of Christ and the things we share and know to be true. I love this gospel and getting the opportunity to be a missionary. I love each of you! Thanks for all the support ! Let us all march on in this good work!
Love always,
Hermana Ällowitz
1319 Butterfield Rd. #552
Downers Grove, IL 60515
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