Monday, March 27, 2017

March 27, 2017

We got to visit the Hindu temple of Greater Chicago it was fun!
Super cool to learn some new things.





❤SISTER MUHLESTEIN & I REUNITED AFTER 6 MONTHS !!! She's a sister training leader too.
GOODBYE SISTER NOGUEIRA ❤πŸ˜­πŸ’”

MISSIONARYS FOREVER !!!❤❤❤❤
I MISS MY WONDERFUL, BEAUTIFUL AMAZING COMPANION!!!! πŸ˜‘πŸ˜‚❤
Coolest thing ever ... 
Kimmer sent a referral to my mission and the assistants are teaching her. She has potential. They have been having success with her. I have the coolest brothers ever--just so everyone knows! The church is so true! 
Funny stories :
  • Broke key to church ..... 
It was soooo cold a couple weeks ago. While on exchanges with the sisters, I broke the church key in the keyhole.  Luckily they were able to get a new one. Haha. I didn't know I was so strong πŸ˜πŸ˜‚
  • spit water everywhere 
We were with the Hermana's.   They had me laughing soooo hard when I was drinking water, that I spit it everywhere. Good thing we have paper towels to clean things up πŸ˜‚

Firsts this week
MOLΓ‰  TURNS SISTER INTO HERMANA.   Ate MolΓ¨ this week .... it's basically chocolate sauce with other weird. sauce--it isn't good, just so you know. Just cause there's chocolate on it doesn't mean it's edible. But was wayyyy better than roadkill for sure πŸ˜‚

Ate Phillipino food .... oh it was soooo good! 
Did you know Como esta = same in Tagalog as it is in Spanish. Languages are the coolest.  

Miracles : 
  • a Guy told us we caught him when he's not usually home. Totally inspired to knock his house! 
  • While on exchanges with the Hermana's, we had an appointment that was 95% Spanish.  At the end the members asked me to pray and I got to use my Spanish. It was so cool. I was sooo nervous but it was so cool my practice is paying off. 

It ALWAYS amazes me when I have ABSOLUTELY NO strength whatsoever & yet God helps me out through the atonement to continue on and to keep on going.  Missions are soooo hard. They're soooo much harder than anyone ever could prepare you for. So be aware! But really soooo worth it. It's definantly the best thing I've ever done with my life. 


Y'all stay fresh. 

Love , 
Hermana Allowitz 




Monday, March 20, 2017

March 20, 2017

Our crazy zone !!!!
We went on exchanges in
Bourbonnais. It was cool, but weird to be back. I wish I could've
visited more people, but it's okay. This was a miracle!
I SURPRISED THE BEYERS !!!!!!! It was so fun.
Finding Exchanges with the Joliet Hermana's !!!!

❤❤❤❤❤BEST FRIENDS FOREVER ❤❤❤❤ "LAUGHTER IS THE BEST MEDICINE!!!!! Unless you laugh all the time, in which case you probably need some real medicine" #107SISTERS
Seriously, we don't even coordinate these things. We are just SO unified.
Exchange w/ The Bourbonnais sisters.
TENDER MERCY FROM THE HEAVEN!!!!!
Brother Wilson made smoked chicken & ribs (we are talking
the REAL DEAL) .... AND .... to make this even better ..... ( drum
roll please ... haha jk, but no really...) THEY HAD RUDY'S .... TEXAS
RUDY'S BBQ sause!!!!!! 😻😻😻😻😻😻
All I gotta say is ..... Don't mess with a Texas Girl & her BBQ!!!!
He also made us pina coloadas ! ☔️
AND the even greater part is ..... I've converted MY companion to BBQ.
We didn't finish Saturday night @ dinner ,so the next day at church Bro Wilson brings a bag full of ribs and Rudys sauce! .#greatestdayever
NATURE IS BEAUTIFUL. ....
you know what I get from this beautifulness
????
GOD LOVES US ❤
Our spirit animals come out at night time ....πŸ‘πŸ‘πŸ‘πŸ‘πŸ‘πŸ‘πŸ‘
This is April & Chris !!!! They're working on changing their lives so they can come closer to Jesus Christ & better themselves. Yesterday we invited April to be baptized when she comes to know this message is true. She said, "ABSOLUTELY". We were all soooo stoked!!!!
I am sooo happy for the opportunity to help people come closer to Jesus Christ.
Chris is inactive trying to change his life. April has investigated the church before, yet now she's really wanting to change. It amazes me what life choices and experiences prick people's hearts to give them desires to change.
I've learned that there is ALWAYS ALWAYS a way back home to our loving Heavenly Father. I have seen it time and time again.
I am so grateful for this gospel. I'm not even close to perfect, but because I have the true gospel in my life I can repent...aka change... not once but EVERYDAY.

Y'all have a great week. The church is true.

Love Hermana Allowitz
One of my FAVORITE Illinois restaurants with the Senior sisters!!!!
They're so awesome.
They're our grandmas out here.
Doovin & Ash, can you guess this place????
I will never get enough of this. #BESTFOOD

The Freeze family ❄️ are the BEST! They're such awesome missionaries
and are always looking out for us. When we don't have meals, they
have us over.
Sister Griffin & I really do always match. HAPPY ST. PATTYS DAY ☘️☘️☘️☘️
and Sister Nogueira & I keep matching too. #compunity I LOVE HER ❤❤❤
Illinois people and their geese statues..... they're ALWAYS dressed up.
¿¿¿What's worse than dressing up your dog?????.....
your goose statue.

Tuesday, March 14, 2017

March 13, 2017

The senior sisters are so great! We love them!
Left to right: Sister Hatch , my wonderful comp Sis. Nogueira, y'all know me , and Sister Greene!
They really take care of ya
Our district.
Our district leader made us "be a little BOuLDer" rocks to remember to BE BOLD. It was cool.
Kennith !!!!! He is a recent convert in Pontiac. He has been through a LOT! But is soooo wonderful. He cracks me up. I had heard sooo much about him, so it was great to finally meet him while in Pontiac. He's just a ray of sunshine !
Pontiac is such a fun town!!!! One of my dearest friends, Sister Metcalf served here & had to go home for health reasons. It was sooooo hard for me when she left. So it was a HUGE TEMDER MERCY being here for a day, cause it's like she was right there with me. ❤❤❤
I've ALWAYS wanted to legitlly visit a prison. So far, this is the closest I've gotten...
the PONTIAC PRISON. It has the the WORST of WORSTS in the WHOLE state.
We taught a lady who works there, and interesting just listening to
her crazy stories. One day I'll go inside to visit people :)
Real Japanese sushi made by yours truly & my companion!!!! #tuna&salmon
Sister Meldrum is from Japan, and she taught us how to make REAL sushi. She gave us these house slippers to wear inside. It was cool! An authentic Japanese experience ...
she's so awesome cause she bought all the ingredients & taught us how and that's what we had for dinner. And even got to take some home. Sister Meldrum is so nice !
¡Exchange with the Joliet Hermana's !!!!!! I got to be an Hermana for a day,
such a tender merc ! I've actually been an hermana ALL transfer with Sister Nogueira. I didn't realize how good my Spanish actually was til now. When I was set apart I was promised to have the gift of tongues on my mission. And I was pretty sure it wasn't gonna be a language, since I got called English. But you never know ..... and so my whole mission I've been trying to figure out what the Lord intended for me by that. And I've seen that I've been able to really relate to others super well by connecting to them through my personal experiences and the ability to place myself in their shoes. Even though I'm still not anywhere near fluent in Spanish I have had many many many times on my mission where I've had the opportunity to talk to those who only speak Spanish and they've understood me.... which is a MIRACLE cause most times I don't even know what I'm saying. I just let the lord work through me, through the Spirit. And now even though I have a LONG way to go with learning Spanish I have come even farther thanks to the help of my wonderful companion. I had a goal to be able to pray in Spanish by the end of the transfer. It's not even over yet, and I can successfully pray in Spanish. My vocab is limited but I CAN DO IT. I AM SOOOO HAPPY!!!!! I know the lord blesses us with soooo many talents. We just gotta work at it. We gotta reap. We gotta do our part. Talents don't just grow on trees.
I am very grateful for the gift of tounges the lord has given me. And I'm excited to keep figuring out what those other talents are.
District lunch ...an authentic Chicago style place!
It was delicious. I finally found MY CORNDOGS ❤ It was a great
reunion πŸ˜‚ savannah would understand ! #corndogsforlife
Have I mentioned how much I REALLY LOVE ILLINOIS??????😻😻😻😻
Aren't these skies magnificent ??????'I don't know how Heavenly Father does it. I'm just so grateful for the beauty he's blessed us with! If you EVER question if God loves you .... LOOK OUTSIDE. It's beautiful ❤❤❤❤ And if it's snowing..... just close your eyes and pretend you're on a beach and you'll feel the same thing! πŸ˜‚
The corn will be coming back soon. I'm gonna miss these wide open spaces 🎢 🌽
Sister Sarah Smith ( in the ward) made pumpkin chocolate chip cookies (they're even healthy!) this week for dinner at their house. And it was a crazy miracle because I had been thinking about that kind of cookie for a week or so. I really wanted some and BOOM. She's seriously the best. She's one of the most amazing people I've EVER met! I really love her. She's a kindred spirit. I love that Heavenly Father knows EXACTLY WHO we need to help us through this mortal journey. Sister Smith is an angel in my life ! Their whole family is a tender mercy.

And the skies were super pretty that night. Seriously , I am just soooo overwhelmed by the Love of God in my life ❤
When people say they don't believe God exists ..... or they doubt I say, "you ARENT looking hard enough. OPEN your eyes. Everything we have is because of him. He does exist. He's in EVERYTHING. He loves you!"
Beautiful !!!! Fearless!!!
TOFU TRIO ATTACKS MISSIONARIES 🀒 




A lady we taught about the Book of Mormon and restoration of the church told us later (when we called to confirm our lesson), "no, if you come over it isn't to convince me your church is true.  I know it's NOT.   I WILL convince YOU that my church is true. I don't feel good about the Book of Mormon. It's of Satan." Wow. This made me sad cause I KNOW the Book of Mormon and church IS SOOOO  true. It's sad when ppl bash it and reject it. Again if nothin else it has made my testimony stronger. 


We were at the library this week and my companion was working on "my plan"...a program missionaries do their last transfer.  I was trying to be productive with missionary things, and realized an elderly man next to me.  I was thinking how I could talk to him about the gospel. I pulled out my wide variety of mints (Jaja. You know you're a missionary when....) and said,  " hey, would you like a mint?" And BOOM...it worked. He talked for a LONG time about his hobby of going to wildlife parks and photographing. It was really intense haha. But it was cool. I related his hobby back to the gospel about how Heavenly Father loves us a lot because of all the beauty. And how cool it is that this guy is using the talents God has given him. He actually knows a LOT of Mormons. He's had a lot of experience with them from jobs or school  or just in passing. 
It was extra Cool to see his guy has had YEARS of Mormons in his path, and I got to be another part in that. Y'all,,,,, sharing the gospel doesn't have to be soooo complicated. It isn't. We make it complicated. It's as simple as just listening. He wasn't interested in hearing more about the gospel but he said he really appreciated me sharing info with him and simply talking. And it all started with sharing a mint. πŸ˜‚As we were leaving the library he said ..."thanks Alloweta."  I was dying.  A lot of people struggle with my name so I usually always relate my name to the song so ppl get it. The song is "Allowetta, alla Allawetta" or something like that. But sometimes it just confuses people more haha. 




There was a spider in our apartment...a baby thing. My companion told me to get rid of it. I don't have a problem killing or touching spiders, so people usually ask me to get rid of them .πŸ˜‚ Instead of getting rid of it by killing it, I actually ...Ate a spider! Sister Nogueira told everyone we met. "Well it's good protein right ?"πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚

TOFU TRIO ATTACKS MISSIONARIES 
I must really need to learn something from eating tofuI am not even a picky eater, but tofu is something I CANNOT stand. 
Last Sunday night : ate extra super spicy tofu!!!! 
Last Monday night : ate miso soup with extra tofu 
Last night: Tofu spaghetti ..., really how much  more spaghetti and tofu can a missionary eat ? Spaghetti and tofu are probably my 2 least favorite things on this planet. Trial of my faith...? πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚ 


Weekly quote : 
"Be like a herfer and face adversity head on. Don't let adversity define you.   Just face it."- Bishop Fisher 



I was asked to give a talk yesterday about missionary preparation.  I could've talked the entire sacrament meeting (only had 10 min) haha. It is my favorite topic, of course! Afterwards a member came told me he's from Austin too & then went on to talk about this AMAZING BBQ place that's the closest thing to Rudy's and he wants to take us missionaries there soon. I won't say no to that! Smirk 😏 .



Temple attendance : 
"worthiness is an indicator of our desires...of our obedience."
STORAL OF THE MORY... go to the temple!!!! DON'T let ANYTHING hold you back from going!!!!! 


Miracles :
  • Made sushi 
  • Awkward  moment laughing turned into awesome inspiration to laugh to gain member trust 
We were teaching members a new plan at a dinner appointment. 
There's a new mission plan called the "area plan" for everyone in Canada and the people U. S.  And there's 4 Points to it. 
1- live the gospel of Jesus Christ 
2- missionary work 
3- help take care of poor and needy 
4- do temple / family history work 

Being me, I accidentally slipped & said, "feed poor and needy" while we were eating dinner with a member. We all died laughing for a good solid 5 -10 minutes. The member who is always so serious started laughing too and said, " Wow you two are fun. We will have to have you over again." I cannot even tell you how HUGE it is that I totally butchered the plan. That member  was telling us how missionaries before totally ruined their relationship with the members. Laughter helps people build trust. I'm soooo grateful it went a good way instead of way  south haha. 





  • Less active bore testimony after 15 years!!!!! He & wife recently had a baby and it's changed their ENTIRE perspective on life. It was so cool to hear him bear his testimony. 
Sister Nogueira and  I have a tradition for the last few Mondays... we go to Chick-fil-a.  Because we have become "regulars", we have made a friend of one of the workers, name Carol. She is so wonderful!  She seriously is gonna be baptized one day. She has kids who live in Utah, has been to Temple Square in SLC.  At district meeting some elders were telling that they have been going to Chick- fil-a and  have met a lady named Carol and have been working on her. We all got super exited. Today when we went there we saw a  fun little family from our ward who bought our lunch which was so nice  We sat by them and were talking. Then Carol came by and the Sister Anderson is from a place in Utah close to where Carol's kids live. It was soooo great because we got to know Carol a lot better. 
It was funny cause today Carol even said,"hello. I knew you came but I couldn't remember what day." So she was expecting us. Haha. 


  • We participated in New Beginnings.  The young women  told us we are so pumped up and fired for the opportunity to share the gospel...  They said it makes them exited to share the gospel and they wanna do it more. I'm happy to know I've made a difference 

The church is true! 

Your Texan Chicagoan 
Hermana Karigan Allowitz 

Monday, March 6, 2017

March 6, 2017

Part of our authentic Indian meal ...
Step 13 gone wrong? Jaja just kidding 😬
Sister Havey !!!!!
Sister Campbell! Can you believe I trained her and she's been out for almost a year? Crazy !

Exchanges with the Pontiac sisters !!!!
Our new investigator, Indu!


Frankfort exchange take 2
Serious as Chicago !
¿Really Sister Γ„llowitz ?.... this wasn't even on purpose.

High school reunion !
Cool clouds !!!!! FAT TUESDAY CELEBRATION πŸŽ‰


No snow?...well here come the Toronados .... ILLINOIS IN WHIRLWIND OF TROUBLE 
PAUL BLART EATS GOAT 
SISTERs... participate in Fat Tuesday 


Okay is it really March already??? This is SO unreal!   Time flies when you're having a great time! I officially hit my 15 month mark today!!!!!!! And it's the BEST 15 months. FOR I LOVE this gospel with ALL my heart!!!! 

So I'm Polish blooded and we have this thing called PACZKI TRADITION. For hundreds of years in my beloved land of Poland, my people have been celebrating the arrival of Lent by making PACZKI ( punch-key). They're DELICIOUS filled Jelly donuts from heaven!!!! "It's tradition" for "FAT TUESDAY" (Ostaki) .... aka the  day before Ash Wednesday, the 40 day fast. It's one of my favorite traditions, and I'm proud to have Polish blood! I love that as we learn more about our family history these holidays and events become special to us. 

We had some legit tornado warnings. The sky's even looked pretty crazy. Lots of rain and hail. And crazy things going. We are still alive! Some areas in our mission got hit pretty bad though. 

These investigators of ours, Indu & Srvanon, invited us over for an authentic Indian meal. I ate GOAT for the first time in my life. I milked a goat once, but never ate one until yesterday. It actually was a lot better than I thought. And I can officially say I DO NOT like tofu !!!! 🀒🀒🀒🀒 ESPECIALLY spicy tofu πŸ˜°πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚  They kept asking if we wanted more of everything. I couldn't take any more. Then she took my plate and loaded more tofu and goat..... so kids listen up .... if you're preparing to go on a mission ..... learn to eat lots of different foods even if you don't want to cause it'll really prepare  you for a mission! 


Sis. Nogueira is helping me learn to really pray in Spanish and not just Spanglish but for now that's kinda what it is. Jaja. I've noticed when I pray in Spanish, it helps me make sure my prayer life isn't rote everytime. Because I really have to pay attention to the spirit and what words I'm gonna say. I REALLY have to search for them. 
It's cool to hear her always pray in Spanish too.  I don't understand everything she says, but I'm learning to recognize more things and the spirit has touched my heart so much more. It's really interesting what happens when you don't understand the words yet the spirit is understood in ANY language. Learning languages is so cool! 



What y'all been doing around 9-10pm ? πŸ˜‚You know you're a missionary/ Hermana when it's night time and for your free time  you sing every hymn in SpanishI feel like the world is getting crazier everyday and even though there's lots of good people in the world, there's still a lot who are making poor choices.  But here we are 
jamming out to Spanish hymns πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚ #missionaryjamsesh 


Sis. Nogueira & I laugh SO much. It's pretty funny. We get each other's wave lengths and pretty much read each other's minds. It's so crazy. We really are like twins. It was extra funny, cause we got asked last minute (5 min before class) to teach Gospel Principles a couple weeks ago and a member in ward afterwards said, "Sisters, you're like twins! One of you says something and teaches, then without even having to look at each other the other person talks and testifies. Wow. I'm just amazed! Y'all are amazing teachers. I'm so blown away!" 
It's the best when you and your companion can teach in unity. This really is a companionship from the heavens. I'm so grateful for my companion. She's awesome! It's so nice when members tell you you're doing great too because you really know you're following the spirit and doing what God asks you to do. Seriously, the gospel is my FAVORITE & I wanna share it with EVERYONE!!!!! ☺️


Sheila, my recent convert from Bourbonnais, recently told her boss, "I recently was baptized and now I'm a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. So I won't be working on Sundays  anymore." ¿WOW RIGHT?????  It's soooo cool to see the Lord work within  her and help her out. She's continuing to change and has come so close to Jesus Christ  every day. She's more bold, and I love it! She's such an inspiration. Heavenly Father has soooo much in store for her. I can feel it. It's sooooo cool, cause she's working on introducing the gospel to her daughter. Her daughter has noticed a HUGE difference in Sheila and said it must be this gospel and the Book of Mormon. 

Brethren and Sisters, I KNOW this gospel and the Book of Mormon DO bring soooo much happiness and light into our lives. I've seen it with Sheila. I've seen it with many people throughout my mission, and most importantly, I've seen it within MYSELF. I know we are our first converts.  And we must come to know of the truthfulness of the gospel for ourselves. I had a STRONG testimony before my mission, but throughout this adventure my testimony has become STRONGER than EVER before! I wouldn't want my life any other way but with the gospel. I love it so much. I love being apart of this great work. I love helping people change and come closer to Christ. I love that I've learned so much. And changed for the better so much. I just love it all. 





Miracles:
  • We recently have this new investigator named  Kendrick. The finding assistants found him at a local fast food place, and Kendrick is wanting to change his life. He's so cool. So the finding assistants gave us his referral. That same day we felt we needed to go see him a little after 5:30pm. We get there and knock on the door but no answer. We wait...knock again...no answer... rang the door bell...nothin! But we didn't feel we could just go back into the car and drive off.  We felt we really needed to go find out WHY we felt we needed to be there. We see a house a couple doors down, we thought we should knock on. An older lady answered (it took her awhile to get to the door)  and yelled "I'M EATING DINNER. GO AWAY!"  I tried to at least hand her a card & get a return appointment, but she just straight up slammed the door. Her dinner must've been really good.  You know what's even better than dinner???.... THE RESTORED GOSPEL TRUTHS!!!!!  It was way cool though, cause right as we turn around Kendrick pulls up in his car jamming to his rap music. We walk over and wave and he rolls down his window. He was so surprised to see us. He said, "I saw missionaries earlier. And now you're here talking to me. I'm tripping  This must be God telling me I need to find Jesus again and come back to church, cause I've been feeling like I need to.   Wow this is so crazy! I'll be axin' more questions next time y'all be coming .   He's seriously so cool. And hilarious. We were able to teach him about the Book of Mormon and a little bit of background on it. We had another lesson to teach him this last Friday but he didn't answer so we will keep trying. So keep praying we get to teach him and his family! 


In the mission, we've been trying to get out of being rote and stop using the same old approaches to people. We've been working on using F. O. R. M. it stands for ....Family. Occupation. Recreation. Motivation.  It's been cool to see as we use this to talk to people, we have a LOT more meaningful gospel convos with them.  They become more interested because you do teach THE PERSON & not just rote, boring saleslike lessons. People really see the light of Christ within you.  They want it. They feel they need it. They yearn for it. 
So here's some miracles we saw this week as we put this into pracitce : 

Milagros¡ Semanales!!!!!!¡
Frankfort exchange
So we had our first specialized training exchange and went to Frankfort. This is the exchange we go to their area and simply help them find. And we saw a LOT of miracles! Frankfort has been struggling for the LONGEST time to find new investigators. We helped them find 4 NEW INVESTIGATORS.... FOUR!!! And even some potentials. It was sooo cool! 
  • Peter... We got talking & he was interested for a little bit, but then said they already had a church.  We were able to keep the convo going by relating it to things he mentioned were important to him. When he was giving us his info to check back, I noticed his last name was Polish.  I asked, "is your last name Polish?" And I was RIGHT!!!! I asked more about  Poland from his family's history, and his parents are straight outta Poland. Isn't that so cool? He's a first generation. I think that's awesome! He was more interested in learning more about his family  history. Talked to him about the churches super cool familysearch.org 
  • Ironman ... We were walking up to this guys house and the garage was open. There were ironman running bibs, a huge ironman frame so I was THINKING "BINGO. I got  this" !!!! He quickly noticed who we were and said his friend was a member and even served a mission, but he wasn't interested. He was about to slam the door, then I pointed out I saw his ironman stuff. His attitude changed. I told him how impressive that was. I asked him some tips for someone who wants to do one. He was a lot nicer and a lot more willing to listen when we showed him that we are real people. He kindly took a pass along card when we offered service too. It was cool to see his heart soften. Again like I've said soooo many times.... service does soften hearts. 

  • One of the sisters set a goal to talk to 30 people and didn't think she could accomplish it and she and I ended up talking to 43 people in just ONE day!!!! 
It makes me wonder how many people I've come in contact with and talked to on my entire mission. It helped me see that we CAN accomplish ANY goal we set for ourselves, if it's sincere and we have the intent to  have the faith to ACT on it. It also taught me that just because someone doesn't accept our invitation to learn more, or come to church right away, or even if they are rude and cuss you out or flip you off or slam the door in your face, it doesn't mean our efforts are wasted. It simply means we brought those people just a little bit closer to Jesus Christ. It means we left them just a little bit better than we found them. I know even the simplest things can change people's lives and bring them closer to Jesus Christ because I've witnessed it EVERY SINGLE DAY. 


¡Tenga una BUENA semana!

Love, 
SiΓ²stra Γ„llowitz