LOVE is an open door!

Wow. One word to describe this whole week, and basically my whole life, would have to be LOVE. Heavenly Father truly loves His children so so so much! He loves me, my family, the members here in my ward, the homeless man on the street who loves the gospel, my investigators, my companions, all of the missionaries around me, all of my friends, etc. He loves us ALL! And because He loves us all he has a perfect plan for each of us in order for each one of His children to hear the message of the restored truth. And the best part is that He loves US so much that He allows us to be part of that plan in teaching his other children! It doesn't matter if you're a full time missionary or not. If you have the Gospel in your life and you have a mouth that can speak and a body that can act as an example then YOU have been called to declare the message to all of the people around you! How neat is that. Our Heavenly Father must truly love us and trust us so much! Don't let Him down! Show Him the love you have for Him too by participating in this great work in every possible way you can!

Ok let's begin! There have literally been miracles all week long. However, Sunday there were especially some incredible ones! First miracle was that it was Sunday. Sunday's are ALWAYS my favorite!! I love seeing all of the members and helping investigators! The best miracle at church would have to be that when we walked into sacrament meeting all 4 of our investigators we had there were already talking to members and families were asking them to sit with them! How miraculous?! The members here are so great and we are trying to help them as much as we can to recognize that missionary work is the members work as much as it is the missionaries. Each of us in our everyday lives need to remember that this work is ours too... We are called to this work whether we are full time missionaries or not. 

"I am called of God. My authority is above that of the kings of the earth. By revelation I have been selected as a personal representative of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is my master and he has chosen me to represent him. To stand in his place, to say and do what he himself would say and do if he personally were ministering to the very people whom he has sent me. My voice is his voice, and my acts are his acts; my words are his words and my doctrine is his doctrine, my commission is to do what he wants done. To say what he wants said. To be a modern witness in word and deed of the divinity of his great and marvelous latter-day work". 

This is our commission... Not only as a full time missionary but for the rest of our lives. I love the scripture in Helaman 16:7 about Samuel the Lamanite. Once he left the wall he didn't run and go hide. He went back to his own people and began preaching the gospel STILL! We need to show our love for our Heavenly Father and savior not only by giving two years or 18 months of our full undivided time and attention to preaching the Gospel and bringing people until Christ but we must devote our lives to that calling! "Because I have been given much I too must give". 

What is our main motivation behind everything we do though... Especially in sharing the gospel? It honestly should be love. If we love our Savior and Heavenly Father and the people around us then we will want to share the gospel with them and serve them and we will want to read our scriptures everyday and we will want to pray and attend church and go to the temple and do everything we are told to do... Because of LOVE! It's like what I shared in my talk before I left on my mission. 

Elder holland said, "Why was the Savior willing to keep His covenant with the Father and fulfill His divine mission to atone for the sins of the world? It was His love for His Father and His love for us. Why was the Father willing to allow His Only Begotten and perfect Son to suffer pain beyond description to bear the sins, heartaches, sicknesses, and infirmities of the world and all that is unfair in this life? We find the answer in these words: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son.” Elder Holland movingly suggested, “I am not certain just what our experience will be on Judgment Day, but I will be very surprised if at some point in that conversation, God does not ask us exactly what Christ asked Peter: ‘Did you love me?’.... The Savior said, “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.” How we all need a regular manifestation of the Savior in our daily lives!" 

This past week I have learned so much about love in my everyday life. I feel so blessed to have a family who loves me, friends who love me, a mission Presidente and wife who love me, companions who love me... We are all so blessed to at least have one person who loves us. It has honestly given me a glimpse of the love our Father in Heaven has for each of his children. I feel so blessed to have all of these people in my life that I love and they love me right back. But some people here in Spain don't have that. The other night Hermana Lee and I were walking home and we had about five minutes until we had to be home. It was almost 10pm and not a lot of people were on the street so we didn't really want to contact anyone but we saw a lady sitting on a bench and both felt inspired to go talk to her. We did and as we walked up to her we introduced ourselves (in our cute bubbly missionary voices) and then noticed she was crying really hard. She looked at us and asked us to sit down with her. We listened to her whole story about how the lady she works for abuses her, she works 24/7, she doesn't have a husband but has two daughters at home that she is trying to raise, the rest of her family is in Honduras, and she is going to lose her job on August 15th. It was such a sad story but Hermana Lee and I knew Heavenly Father placed her in our path right at that time to be instruments in his hands. I shared D y C 121:7-9 with her and then we prayed with her and she felt a little better after that. We are going to visit her again to help her with everything and teach her the gospel. It opened my eyes though to realize that these people here don't know what it is like to truly be loved. And THAT is one of the biggest reasons I am here. I have been loved everyday of my life and now I get to share that love with others and teach them that they are never alone when they have the savior in their everyday life. It was such a wonderful experience for me to have to remember my purpose here... To bring others into Christ so they can truly feel of his love and power In Their lives as i have felt constantly in my own life. 

Speaking of feeling alone... Let me tell you all about Alex! He is our investigator that is getting baptized on August 8th! He is so so so prepared I can't even believe how prepared he is! Everyday he teaches me something new. It's honestly like he is the missionary and I'm the investigator! I literally take notes on the things he says during our lessons- it's wonderful! He gave me permission to talk a little bit about his story of how he got to this point in his life. He is from Bolivia but his parents moved here to Spain about 11 years ago and he and his sister Jessica (she's 19 and we're best friends!!) stayed in Bolivia and moved here about 4 years ago I think. They didn't really like it at first but now they do... Alex says he feels like the reason he was supposed to come here was so God could lead him to me and Hermana Lee and he could learn about the church. How incredible is that?! Hermana Lee met him right before I got here but they hadn't taught him anything really so we started from the beginning. He loves reading the Book of Mormon and bible and says he can't ever go to sleep anymore without saying His prayers. He just has the strongest desire to do whatever Heavenly Father asks of him. After we teach him a lesson he always says, "ok! No problem! I can (or will stop) doing that. If that's what God wants then that's what I'll do". Like after we taught the commandments he said, "no problem! I will live all of those because that will be following God". We had an AMAZING lesson with him the other night after the JAS (YSA) stake fireside with the Dayton's. He told us that sometimes it is really lonely because he is going to be the first Mormon in His family. But then he said over and over, "but I promise I am getting baptized on 8 of August because I know it is right even if it means I have to be alone". He told us how hard it was to be alone in Bolivia with just his sister and pretty much help raise her for 6 years!!!!! (6 years without seeing his parents! If Alex could do that and take care of his sister at the same time then I can be away from my family for 18 months to teach the gospel... No problem!). Anyways he told us that sometimes it's really hard for him because he knows that he has to be an example for his sister so he needs to go to a good college and get a good job and the best thing he can do for her is join the church!! He is amazing and so strong and ready to be baptized! The truth is though that it all ties back to the theme of LOVE. Why is Alex doing any of this? Why is he wanting to be an example to his sister? Why is he wanting to be baptized? Why does he go serve people in homeless shelters? Why does he tell us everyday how excited he is to serve his mission in one year from now? Why does he give up his training time to come to baptisms with us? Why can't he go to sleep every night without praying? Why does he continue to learn more about the church and read in the scriptures even though nobody tells him to? It is ALL because he has a desire and because HE LOVES his savior and Heavenly Father and he wants to serve them everyday and be close to them. He tells us everyday how much of a change this is for him but it is a happy and good change and he always feels the spirit now. When we truly love our Heavenly Father and savior we will be willing to do anything for them even if we have to stand alone sometimes. We showed Alex the "dare to stand alone" Mormon message by Presidente Monson and he thought it was the neatest thing ever that it related exactly to how he felt! My favorite part is at the end when He tells us that we never truly stand alone when we stand with our father In heaven. And it's so incredibly true! How lucky and blessed we are to have a loving Heavenly Father who is always with us through the Holy Ghost. 

Some of my favorite Alex quotes: 

1. "Don't ever be sad! Smile always!!"

2. After every lesson, sacrament meeting, fireside, etc... "You know what?! I feel so great and really very happy. I am going to be baptized"

3. Every time I need to cry I go cry and then tell myself, "ok, now. Smile again" 

4. I can do this. I can do hard things and if I have to do it alone- no problem! 

5. I always need to be strong! It's hard to be an example but people are looking at me 

6. I will always do ANYTHING to help my sister 

7. I need to do all of these good things because my sister is looking at me always! 

8. (We were having a very spiritual moment and then we all just paused and Alex looked up and said....) "what means gospel??" Haha 

9. It's like I was sick all my life and now you have healed me with the gospel!! 

10. It's like I was in a rose garden and I had to find exactly the right rose... And now I've found it! 

11. There was a hole in my heart... Something was missing. But now it is being filled! 

I'm so excited for him and that I have been able to watch Heavenly Father's plan for him unfold and we could be instruments in helping that plan come together! The gospel is true and I LOVE it so much! I am so grateful that I get to be here in Spain to help these people find that love in their lives too! 

John 15:9-11

9 As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.

10 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.

11 These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.

As we love our Savior and Heavenly Father and then turn outward to love others as we keep the commandments we will be filled with this joy that the Savior is talking about! We must love and teach everyone around us out of love... Whether it's siblings, spouses, friends, extended family, neighbors, the lady at the grocery store, the man or lady who got mad at us... EVERYONE! Every action must be done out of love. Why? Because that is how our Savior, Jesus Christ, taught us and how He lived His life and how He would continue to live his life if He were here today. We represent Him! I am so grateful for the Gospel in my life and the calling I have for eternity to share this incredible message! I know it's true! 

I hope you all have a wonderful week and remember that someone in Spain loves each and every one of you! but most importantly... Our Heavenly Father and Savior love us and they always will! 

Love, 

Hermana Eyring :)

I love this picture of the Savior

Random/funny things: 

1. They have Special K here!!!!! It's the best! 

2. Hermana Lee told our investigators that church is every Thursday! It was so funny. They were so confused! 

3. Our shower broke this week so the four of us sisters had 15 minutes to share one shower! It was an adventure! 

4 Hermana Lee thinks she knows everyone!!!! She'll run up to people on the streets and call them a random name and then turn around and walk away because it's not them. Then she says, "you know... All the South Americans here look the same!" Haha 

5. Every time I see little kids or sometimes just randomly throughout the day I yell, "I WANT TO BE A MOM!!!!!!!" Hermana Lee thinks I'm crazy but oh well :) 

6. Every morning we listen to Laken's EFY song and just die at how gorgeous her voice is :) thanks Lakes! 

7. We met a family from New York on the metro yesterday! They came running up to us and said, "MISSIONARIES!!!!!" It was the cutest!!! Their last name is Dubei and apparently the dad (Dan) went on a mission because of a devotional Grandpa Eyring gave in the Bay Area of California in November of 1994!!! And now all of their daughters want to serve missions one day! It was the sweetest thing! 

Challenge: 

Have a moment to check and make sure everyday that the motivation behind everything you're doing is LOVE for your Heavenly Father and savior! :) 

Love you all!!! MUAH! Hugs from Spain!! 

Alex got into the University of Barcelona so we celebrated having
a lesson about the sacrament and eating crepes!

Exchanges! I was with Sister Wiseman - I love her!

Sister Reeves came with President and Sister Dayton to our ward today!
What a special surprise for us! And we had 4 investigators there at church.

Young Single Adult Fireside with President and Sister Dayton - Alex came!

Teaching English Class

The sisters in my "piso" - sure love them!

Note from Mom: Here are a few thoughts from Allie's companion, Hermana Lee, about their wonderful week...Remember she is the only member in her family so we have adopted her into ours and we are writing letters back and forth! Allie feels so blessed to have such an amazing companion.

"A week of miracles!!! Actually, a minute of miracles!!!!!!!!!!!

We literally have seen miracles in every single second of the day! I really did LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this week! Oh wow! I´m just sooo amazed at every single event that happened this week.

One of our investigators, Alex, we had one lesson with him and it went wonderful. Both of us were able to teach by the spirit according to his needs. It is very wonderful to teach him with my companion, Sister Eyring. I feel like Heavenly Father put both of us to teach Alex, because he really needed and needs both of us. 

The other miracle was with Alberto. He is a less active member and did not come to church for a while. I called him on Saturday, and we meet with him the other day. When we met with him, he told us that he actually was thinking about coming back to church. The day when he prayed to God, he told Him that he wants to come back to church. About 3 hours later, he received a call from us and took that as an answer from God. It is very interesting to see how the missionaries can receive the revelations for their areas and help the people in their area.

I am just very grateful for every single miracles in every single second on my mission. I´m very happy that I get to serve a mission and I know why I am here. I love the Lord and all of His children. Through being diligent and obedience and working with unity with my companion, we were able to see miracles."