HELLO MY FELLOW COLORADOAN WHITE PEOPLE- I AM COMING TO YOU FROM
THE FAR AWAY, VERY DIVERSE LAND OF EMERSON, NEW JERSEY
So I think I'll start off this email responding to your email? K good, glad
you agreed. Cuz I was gonna do it anyways. ;)
I am glad you are enjoying MY weather over there. It has been a lovely 80,
with humidity, so in all actuality it's like 100. Yay for sweating!
I do in fact remember Megan, she was a pretty cool girl and it kinda broke
my heart to hear what happened to her. I hope Jenna is doing ok, because I know
she knew her a lot better than me. This is a lesson kids, don't do drugs 1. cuz
hello, they're bad for you 2. because you don't always know what's in them and
if the maker is telling the truth when he sells him. Real sad stuff. But I do
know that God has a plan for each of us. That He has all of us in His sights,
ALL the time. He knows our pain better than anyone. And He loves us.
Crazy cool that Ty is going to Washington!!! I feel so bad, I didn't
acknowledge the date of his birth. I went to send him a letter and then realized
the folly of my plan when I remembered I didn't know his address...yup. SO he
got an email today haha :)
Congrats on your clean closets! We cleaned out our apartment (cuz ew it
used to be an elders') and came up with 6 bags of random stuff. So holla for
summer cleaning!
OK. Letter time now! Wait til you hear about my week folks. And yes, I am
sending a LOT of pics, but that's because I'm a girl and I enjoy them so don't
hate cuz you aint and all that jazz.
We got to Newark (which, ok, awesome! In the plane my window had the
view of the NYC skyline and the Statue of Liberty! SO COOL) and were immediately
taken to the middle of the city. We got there and there was a bunch of
missionaries that have been out for a while. We got companioned up and started
to sing Called to Serve in the middle of this busy courtyard thing.....as we
were singing the APs yelled GO! Oh my goodness, you have to stay
with your comp. and mine was halfway down the street before I caught up to
her! I am sure ppl thought we were crazy running through the streets in our
skirts and suits. We contacted as I told you, and that was our Fearbuster as
it's called! Pretty cool right??? (Which ok, IDK if I'm allowed to send you the
video, becuz the white handbook says no videos...but the APs took it on my
camera, so IDK. Maybe next week?)
We slept over in the mission home- the Taggert's are AMAZING!
Seriously. They are. I love them so much. AND THEIR KIDS! Just fantastic! AND
their grandkids. Just adorable. I can't say enough good things about them-
they're so chill, but so focused it's awesome.
Tuesday morning we got our trainers. Mine is Sister Brown. She's 1/2 Tongan
1/2 Samoan and she's from Lehi. She is literally cousins with everyone
Polynesian. Her cousins sing and dance with everyone professional, and her
uncles were all NFL players. Anyways, she's super chill and exactly what I need.
Coming from my experience at the MTC, I am seriously loving her. She is so laid
back, and we have the same humor, and the same joke/quotes. It's wonderful. AND
craziness: she's basically a Poly Mallory from Studio C- no joke! All her
gestures and expressions and everything is the same as Mal! I lucked out
hardcore.
Emerson is a fantastic first area. It's been a bit of a culture shock,
as I had only met one white person until church where I met 5 more (more on the
one later). I've met a Jamaican, a Dominican, a Brazilian, 2 Cubans, and an
Indian. And those are just the Less Actives (LAs) I've met with- this week!
They're all so cool! The food has been soooo good. Like please, take me to the
Dominican or to Brazil, because shoot- it's amazing. The Lord has blessed me
with tastebuds that appreciate out here: I've had mussels and stromboli, and
Dominican chicken&rice, etc. But it's ALL so good! And the people here as
so humble and sweet. It costs SO much to live out here- everything is at least
30% more expensive than out West. Out apartment costs $1400 a month and it's a 1
bedroom, and pretty ghetto, but it works! (Um sorry my email sent here? I have
no idea what happened haha)
SO. The white man I met. Super funny! He's a really sweet guy and I
really like him. He's a bit, um...wildly inclined? He feeds squirrels. In his
house. Like he opens his back door and invites them in to chill with him. Ya,
he's named them all. And he's filmed a lot of videos of them, so I got to watch
all 45min of that...yay! Also, he has every copy of the BoM EVER made.
Literally. NO joke. EVERY. COPY. The old ones were super cool to hold and look
at, and he had a lot of other books that reference the 10 Tribes from back in
the early 1800s. He's not a member and doesn't want to be baptized- but he knows
the BoM is true. He's put every copy through a word processor multiple times and
has marked every change (all grammar and spelling), and he's checked the
literacy of each book in the BoM. Says it's true and no man could have wrote it
without God. But he won't get baptized. Stubborn old man, my goodness
:)
I get to go to Ellis Island on the 22nd and again the first few weeks of
August- I'm super excited! I've heard great things, and I'm told the view is
amazing! I also might get to go to the temple with Sister Brown and her Recent
Converts (RCs) sometime this month! Fingers and toes and arms and legs and
errthang crossed please!!!
So my zone is a Brozone which is awesome as well. There is only 4
sisters but 12 elders. Super sweet, cuz they're the best to play sports with and
they're normally super chill (sorry sisters). In my zone is Sister Cobb (who is
amazing, ok, amazing) who is the writer of the letters of the blog that I
obsessively stalked before I came out here...ya, so I know basically everything
about her mission but I've only talked to her once. Awko Taco.
Sorry these paragraph things are so short and that I'm so all over the
place and jumping from subject to subject but these letter are actually a lot
harder than you'd think to type. Like I have no idea what to write and then I
think of something and just spit it out onto the page (no I'm not spitting on
the computer mom, I'm not that crazy yet).
I am definitely coming to love Jersey. Even if I can't pump my own gas,
and groceries cost an arm and a leg, and the humidity might actually kill me one
day, or the drivers might kill us one day, or the thugs might, or the bugs
might, or the lack of mountains might, or the lack of altitude might, or the
amount of food eaten might, or Sister Brown might because I'm too cool for
her...but despite that- I LOVE IT! Actually, because of that, I love it. I've
only been here a week and I absolutely positively do NOT want to leave anytime
soon. I can't imagine what this love will be like in 18 months.
But I do know that it isn't even a fraction of the love that God has
for us. He knows us each individually. He knows our pain and our suffering and
our trials. He knows when we want to give up. But He also is waiting to pour
down blessings upon us, if we but ask for them. "Ask and ye shall receive." We
ask first, and He answers. He is giving us tender mercies and miracles EVERYDAY.
We just need to recognize the hand of the Lord in our lives. If you want
something cool to read, open up my poems and read em- you'll probably find
something in there that will help you! I know the Lord has blessed me with that
talent, I KNOW I wouldn't be able to write those poems so quickly or so well
without His help.
Sorry my letter is so spastic! A lot has happened today- we had an all
mission conference! We went to the park and played sports for a few hours, had
Cafe Rio for lunch (the Taggert's man), and then did skits in the gym. So I'm
basically beat right now haha.
I love my mission. It's truly the greatest! It's the right place at the
right time with the right people for me! I'm so glad to be here! I love you all
so much! You are the greatest examples to me. Keep on keeping on you beautiful
people!
Stay Jersey Strong.
Love,
Sister McAllister
P.S. I have a mini pday on Fridays because the Taggert's are awesome. It's
1.5 hrs long, but it's beautiful and much needed.
P.P.S I have my iPad, so I can read all your emails you send throughout the
week at anytime, I just can't respond til Mondays
assuming view from their apartment
Her Trainer....Sister Brown
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