Dear Family,
 
I have been praying a lot about whether or not I should get an MRI and I felt as if I should. So I got an MRI this last Friday and they said I'd get the results today. This morning I got a call from the doctor and they said "You sure did quite a number on that knee." That made my heart sink. Come to find out, I completely tore my ACL and a lot of other ligaments and cartilage. I told her my situation and she said that I could possibly make things worse if I don't get things fixed sooner rather than later. So.. that's frustrating. I called my mission nurse and she said she was going to talk to Doctor Hinkston (or however you spell it... I think he is a doctor that is a part of the mission) and she would talk to missionary medical. Then she said she would call me. So I'm not sure about anything yet. When I heard the news I just bawled... like a little baby. This is probably one of the hardest things that I had to go through with my left knee and thinking I have to go through it a second time just makes me sick. But I know that things happen for a reason and rather than focusing on "why is this happening to me?" I want to focus on what the Lord is trying to teach me through this challenge. Since I have been on my mission I have really learned to face my challenges with a positive attitude.. of course, I'm not perfect and I'm always going to wonder why I have to go through this. I've truly come to recognize that not only does that make the situation harder but it blocks the opportunity for me to grow as a person and to learn from it. So whatever happens with this, if I have to come home and get surgery, I will be okay with it and know that it's because there's a deeper reason and purpose and that I need to learn something from it.

This week was quite interesting. A lot of our appointments fell through which was devastating! We were able to get to Custer and visit with some less actives which was awesome. Custer is just another one of our areas that we cover and most of our members, well almost all of our members live there. We want to go to Custer more and to get the members in Custer more involved and so finding investigators there is one of our main goals right now. We are still trying to get things figured out so we could spend half the week there. We were able to meet some less actives that live in Pringle, which is in between here and Custer, as well which was great. We are going to Pringle this Friday to help one of the sisters sand her house! We are hoping that as we do service for her and get to know her we can help her to recognize the blessings that can come by bringing the Savior back into focus in her life. 

We had a lesson with Norma, who is one of our main investigators, and our biggest hold up with her is her job. She works on Sundays and so she is unable to come to church and recognize the importance of it and how she can receive her answers through attendance. Yesterday, one of the members in the branch who has been to lessons with her was able to come with us to stop at Norma's and drop off some treats. While we were there, the Sister we brought was able to ask her if our next lesson could be in her home! She agreed and said that would work! It was awesome! We really feel that if we have the lessons in a members home it will help her to progress! We are very excited about that! Jerry is another one of our main investigators and we haven't had the chance to meet with him this week due to the lack of Sisters able to come with us to lessons. There is a mission rule that we have to have another Sister with us to go into a guys home and sometimes that's a very hard rule because we don't have a lot of sisters here in Hot Springs. We offered to meet him at the library but it didn't work out. We are hoping that this won't have any effect on his progression in learning more. Our main goal for him is to see him twice a week and to hopefully have him meet in a members home as well!

So this past Saturday was transfer calls and the phone rang... so that means there was going to be a change. We were really hoping that we wouldn't get a call but.. we did. So Sister Johnson is being transferred to Rapid City which isn't far at all! And she is going to be trained to be the Sister Training Leader so I will be able to talk to her as much as I would like! I was really upset to hear she was being transferred but after the girly tear fest I realized that this could be an opportunity for me to expand myself and step out of my comfort zone as I am going to have to step it up and take control in showing my new companion around Hot Springs. My new companion, Sister Sheranian, I have been told is awesome! Sister Johnson said she came out with her and that she is an awesome missionary and a very hard worker. That's definitely a good thing to know. She use to be Sister Training Leader as well so I am going to learn a lot from her! I am now really excited to meet her! I know that she can help me as a missionary to become better and I am very excited for that. I am also excited for the friendship that I will be able to make with her as we get to know eachother and serve the Lord together.
 
Thank you so much for the package with the 12 days of Christmas!!! Sister Johnson and I look forward each day to opening the gifts! We haven't taken pictures yet but we will! We really appreciate you thinking about us especially by planning this out! I am so excited to skype you guys and the family! SO EXCITED! I will be giving you a call sometime.. not sure when... to plan out the time we are going to skype.
 
Well, that's pretty much all that happened this week. It's been crazy! And this week will be crazy too due to saying goodbyes and getting a new companion. It should be fun! I can't wait to tell you ALL about my new companion! Well... I love you all so much. You are all amazing and I continually am reminded of how blessed I am to have you all. I am probably, no I AM, the luckiest girl in the world because the Lord has blessed me with such a wonderful family. And boy am I grateful to know that we will be able to be together forever. Nothing can ever beat that. No pair of shoes or oreo cookies or soccer games can EVER beat that. Ya'll are my favorite and I love you all to pieces! I hope you have a GREAT week! LOVE LOVE LOVE YOU ALL! Infinity and BEYOND!
 
Love your favorite little sister and daughter in the whole entire world,
Sister Allen

Hello my lovely parents!
 
You talked about your missionaries teaching primary.  I would absolutely love to teach in primary but we unfortunately have no children... therefore we have no primary. We are working on it though!!! But we teach in Relief Society once a month which is a blessing! We enjoy that opportunity we get to be able to become better teachers in that type of setting. Plus our sisters in the branch are just so special. I love them so much!
 
 I'm so glad to hear you signed up to feed the missionaries. I don't know if they feel the same as we do but we are SO happy when people offer to feed us. Sometimes we've felt so pathetic when they make it seem like a chore or a burden. So I really appreciate that you are feeding them because I know how much it means to them.  
 
I'm not exactly sure how to do it on google chat.... can skype split into multiple screens? I'll be giving you guys a call in a week or so to let you know when we are going to skype and what time. I have to figure it out here first. I honestly can't wait! Theres only 16 more days! Sister Johnson and I have a countdown until we get to chat with you guys! It will be the best Christmas present I will have ever gotten!!!!!!
 
We just love the Miller Family and feel so comfortable there. That is most likely where we're going to skype so you will get to meet them! But Sister Miller is a spiritual powerhouse. She has so much faith and we just know that she wants to come to church and whatnot but its just hard to get back into the habit. We love her to death and know that as we continue to encourage her to come back that she will! We hope, at least! She has so much to offer the branch! 

The guy who called us, his name is Jerry. He is awesome! He use to be a teacher of Native American Ways! He is so intelligent and he has taught us so much! We are really excited to be able to help him feel the Spirit and to gain a conviction of this gospel himself. He is reading the Book of Mormon and we feel he is truly searching to know if what we are sharing is true! 

There is a girl from here who is going to Weber State.   I think it would be awesome if she and McKay met and possibly dated! I'm not sure how involved she is in the church though.. She hasn't been impressed by the way some of the members there are acting. They act one way outside of church and then another way at church... But it could be a very good thing for her to know him! He is a spiritual powerhouse himself and could have a huge influence on her! Ask him! She is 20 or 21 I think... not too sure though. Super super cute though!

It was so much fun spending our P-DAY with the elders in our district! We went to Chadron where they all were and we went to a place at the college where they had pool tables and ping pong tables. We just hung out and had a good time! After that we went to eat at Pizza Hut and then went to the mini badlands.. They are just little hills of dirt that look pretty interesting. That's actually where I hurt my right knee... I jumped from one hill to the other and heard a pop and I was down.... then my knee swelled up and got really tight and hurt. No bueno. But we drove to Rapid City that night and stayed because Zone conference was the next morning. Zone conference was awesome! We learned about following up on commitments and being bold as we extend them! It was awesome. I love meeting up with other missionaries. Its a spiritual boost and kind of helps us to be rejuvenated! I went to the Urgent Care after the conference and the lady said that she couldn't feel anything. She said that an MRI would be able to tell if any damage was done to the soft tissue... I really feel like I might need to get one. Just because I have had other instances on my mission where my knee has popped or I've felt a ligament stretch. But I'll let you know if I get an MRI ordered and whatnot.
 
We had our Christmas Party this past Saturday which turned out awesome! We went to our Branch President's house that morning and helped decorate Christmas cookies for it! It was so fun! At the Christmas Party, Norma came and it was so fun! She had a good time we think. The members were so welcoming and were talking to her. I think she really felt like she could really be a part of us and feel comfortable. The food was delicious! We had beef briskets? Not sure how to spell it... but it was so good! We had a white elephant gift exchange too! I ended up with a perfume and lotion from Victoria's Secret. Best. Gift. Ever. (:
 
Well... the Christmas Devotional was awesome last night! Did you guys have a chance to watch it?! I loved every talk! Mervin, the guy who just got baptized, we stopped at his house like 15 minutes before it started and dropped off Christmas Cookies because he wasn't able to go to the party. And we invited him to watch it with us at the church if he would like and he was like, oh, okay! And he came and watched it with us! It was awesome! He liked that we focus on the actual true meaning of Christmas, remember our Savior and his birth. It was awesome! He is solid! Anyways, this past week was awesome! Cold and in the negatives with snow, but awesome! I am truly blessed to be a missionary at this special time!
 
Well, time is up. I love you all so much and can't wait to hear from you next week! Have a GREAT week! Love you (:
 
Love,
Sister Allen

Oh my dearest family,

Oh goodness, I sure do cherish the time I get to read about how you are all doing! That is so awesome that you had such a wonderful Thanksgiving. I am so grateful you were able to spend it with family! I sure do love those pictures of little Ava and daddy. I LOVED them! Have you ever had a fried turkey? We have heard about them a lot from the members here and they say it is absolutely delicious and if we tried it we wouldn't be able to have it cooked any other way! Haha. Mmm, my mouth drools thinking about sweet potatoes. They are the absolute best,... probably one of my favorites to have at Thanksgiving time! Our Thanksgiving was so fun! We got picked up at about 10:30 in the morning... so Sister Johnson and I played a little card game before we got picked up which was fun! Then we went over and hung out with their family, mostly their grand kids haha... we got along really well with them. We played battleship! We then started making our moccasins which was really fun! We didn't finish them though.. it took a lot longer than we expected, but when I get them done i'll take a picture and send them on over! Then ate... which the meal was absolutely amazing. So they have a son who is married to a chef... who happens to be a guy... but regardless, he is an amazing chef. We had smoked tukey and another kind that was just cooked in the oven. We had stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, a green been casserole, rolls, and they had 8 different pies! A caramel apple pie, peach pie, raspberry chiffon pie, pecan pie, lemon meringue pie, key lime pie, pumpkin pie, and a cherry cream cheese pie. How awesome is that!?! The caramel apple pie was by far my favorite! We had a blast and were fed really well. After that we drove to Rapid City to look at the lights there and unfortunately they weren't starting to show them until the day after! But we found a cute park to walk around and see the lights! It was fun! But very cold!! I'll attach a picture... as you can see, our little noses are red, like rudolph the red nosed reindeer in the picture (:

The best christmas present I could ever get is to skype you! And I'm already going to be able to do that!!! But I don't know the exact plans... I will give you a call a couple days before and tell you what time we have planned to call.... If I hear more I'll let you know! I'm excited to be able to skype and talk with the whole family though!!!!!

Things this past week were quite slow. Nobody wanted to meet with us or really talk with us because of the holidays. But that's okay! We are starting to develop a  strong friendship with one of the less active families, the Millers! I really love them! They have some things that are holding them back from going to church but we are really excited to be able to help them because we feel that we can truly help them come back. Sister Miller is our absolute favorite. They bought us a Christmas tree and ornaments for our apartment! So very nice of them!!!!! But we eat at their house every Monday night! They have a daughter who is going to school in Ogden at Weber State! I'm not sure if McKay knows her, her name is Marisa Miller... I showed her a picture of Mac and I and she didn't recognize him. She is super cute though! Wink wink.... (: hahahaha. Anywho... we are going to be skyping at their house for Christmas so you'll get to meet them! But Sister Miller is coming with us to a lesson this week and we are really excited! This lesson we have planned is a guy we tracted into and we left him with a restoration pamphlet and asked him to read it and if he was interested in hearing more to give us a call! So the other day we get a call and he wants to meet and talk about it!! That's never happened to us before so we were stoked! He has a good friend that is a member of the church which has given him very positive feelings about the church. We're excited for that lesson!

This past week we met with Norma and talked about how we can build a strong foundation through prayer, scripture study, and going to church. She is keeping the commitments to read and pray but she hasn't come to church yet. We committed her to come this past sunday and she accepted the invitation very positively! So we were super excited! Unfortunately, she didn't show up and come to find out she got called into work. It makes me so frustrated how work gets in the way of everythinge!!! But we just adore her and she has so much potential! 

I think that it makes complete sense when you think about God wanting to teach all of His children. That's what I am trying to help people realize... is that He loves ALL of us so it makes sense that He visited more of His children... and just knowing that would give at least me enough reason to want to read it to see if that could possibly be true. But I don't know.. I'm biased. (: But yes, the way people are able to gain the knowledge of what we share is through the Spirit and only through Him and so we need to be as obedient and faithful as we can so we can have the Spirit to testify of the truth to them!

Anyways, life is grand. Time flies by too fast though... I can't believe Thanksgiving is already over... and before I know it Christmas will be too! Only 24 more days... WHAT?! Haha that's crazy! Before I even realize I am going to be on the airplane on my way home... its insane. I'm currently in Chadron (where elders in our district are serving) because we have Zone Conference tomorrow and so we are going to carpool. But we decided to have a District P-day... so we are here in Chadron about to go hang out with the Elders in the district. It should be fun! We are excited... but yeah... then tomorrow we have Zone Conference and we'll be able to meet up with more missionaries and our Mission President and his wife to edify one another and strengthen one another as we learn how to be better missionaries. I love Zone Conferences so I am pretty excited! It's so nice being able to be around more missionaries. I love my companion but its just us in little Hot Springs, so its nice to be able to be around more Sisters and Elders. Anywho, I love you all so much and can't wait to hear from you guys this next week! Always remember the wonderful quote from our loving Prophet. "Dare to be a Mormon, dare to stand alone, dare to have a purpose firm, dare to make it known." Keep being Christlike examples and continue to pray for missionary opportunities to arise for you. I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Love,
Sister Allen

P.S. the first picture is of Sister Johnson and I with some of the Birkholz' grand kids... Erin(the cute little girl), Sean(the older boy by sister j), and Rowan(the one kneeling in front!) The second picture has us with Brother and Sister Birkholz! A goofy picture of them but we just love them a whole lot! (: