Home

YALL I'm home... and its the weirdest thing. 

How do I write about a year and a half in the Amazon Jungle, preaching and teaching and walking and running and sometimes crawling and crying and laughing and growing and being stretched and missing my family and also never wanting to go home? I feel eternally grateful for my time spent in Manaus. It was the hardest, and also the best thing I've ever done. I came to know to know my Savior Jesus Christ and my Heavenly Father by serving His children in Brazil. I learned things about patience and humility and Christlike love and charity that I really needed to learn. I grew to appreciate my family and friends in ways that I never had before. I learned Portuguese! I learned how to make Brazilian food! lol in my dreams. Okay so maybe I know a few things.

Anyways. I feel so blessed that God let me go on a mission to Manaus, Brazil. I also feel blessed to be back at home. But we'll save that for another post. 

Peace I'm Out

While I'm gone you can write me aaaaaaaat:

Sister Allison Riding

Brazil Manaus Mission

Rua Loris Cordovil, 1066

Alvorada 1

69042-010 Manaus - AM

Brazil

Interested in reading more about why I'm on a mission? 

Lemme tell ya!

My wonderful mother may or may not post my letters here. We'll see :)

Temple Square + Devo

On Sunday I had the terrific opportunity to head up to Salt Lake with some of my lady friends and attend the First Presidency Devotional (here's the play by play).

Next semester Avery will be serving a mission in Atlanta, Sydney will be in London, and by the end of April both Lindsay and I will be in Brazil. I'm incredibly grateful for each of these girls and the example that they individually and collectively have set for me. PS four of us are single so in 1.5 years feel free to hit us up? Wait what?

Be of Good Cheer

I have had the most wonderful weekend. It was General Conference! It is a semi-annual gathering held in Salt Lake City. It is a series of two hour sessions where we have the opportunity to listen to modern day revelation from the authorities of the church. It is broadcast worldwide, but since I now live in Utah, I've been able to attend the live sessions.  Here's my April post about Conference. It was such a blessing to be there in person. I felt the validity of their Priesthood Power and felt comforted by the fact that these words coming out of these men and women were coming directly from Heavenly Father. 

This came as a bit of a shock. I have always wanted to serve a mission but was unsure about how timing would work out. I've prayed extensively and talked about this with my parents, and I'm going in January! I feel so good about it and can't wait to see what these next few months will bring.

Soooo someone please buy my contract? 

http://provo.craigslist.org/apa/3326211622.html 

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE

Good Thoughts

You know, this is something that's been on my mind quite a bit lately. It's not fun to be around girls that are negative all the time! There is a TON of wonderful happy things going on all around me right now so why the heck would I focus on the teensy bad things? 

Also this totally has nothing to do with this post but recently I stumbled upon an Anti-Mormon website which I generally tend to avoid, but it mentioned how once this girl finally found the Bible, she realized that the LDS church wasn't true, etc. I just want to clarify that we in my church believe that the Bible is the word of God and we completely live by it's teachings. That is all!

Conference Weekend

I loved being able to be in the Conference Center to watch it. Such a wonderful experience. Thank you again Dad for getting us tickets! When President Monson was announcing the new temples, I felt very strongly impressed to the point of tears that I need to go to the temple every single week. Lately I've been feeling very stressed out and anxious and I think I need that peace and spirit that comes with the temple.

I waste so much time. I feel sick when I think about the hours wasted per week on social networking websites, taking naps and just chatting with friends. Those things can be productive, just not in such vast quantities! Those were the two main things that have been on my mind all weekend and since then. Much love! xoxo