Ellis Round 3....August 31, 2015

Hola Hermanita!

As promised:

A typical day in the life of an Emerson Sister:
6:20am- The first alarm goes off and you breathe a huge sigh of bliss and sadness. You get to sleep 10 more min! But you have to get up in 10 min. #OppositionInAllThings
6:30am- You bound out of bed with all the energy and excitement of a missionary on a brand new day!       Nah, jk. You crack your eyes open and wipe the sleep out of them, you yawn hugely as you stretch/snuggle into your blankets for 5 more seconds of sleep, and then you slowly but surely make your way into a kneeling position to pray. You spend the next 5-10min (prayers are looong out here) thanking Heavenly Father for the blessing of being in New Jersey and having the amazing Sister Brown as your trainer; and pleading that you will be able to teach by the Spirit today, and be able to bless someone- anyone's- life with the gospel.
6:30-7am- Exercise your little heart out cuz we all know exactly where all the wonderful members' food is goin
7-8am- Take a shower to get all the sticky sweat off you (no investigator wants that sadly). Do your hair and makeup, even though you know it'll be ruined by the heat and humidity in an hour. Put on your proselyting clothes and hope the heat won't cause unsightly stains. Eat a satisfying bowl of cereal or oatmeal for breakfast #ILoveBreakfast
8-9am- Personal Study. Sit at your desk and take in as much as you can! You only have a little measly hour to try and learn everything you wanted to get to today. Bask in the gospel and feel the Spirit- stare in awe at your iPad as your mind is blown with the knowledge of the gospel and the wonder of God. Drink one bottle of water.
9-10am- Turn towards you companion, now back at your iPad, now back at your comp- look, she has the White Handbook out! #OldSpiceGotNothinOnMe.  Pray together that you can know what it is the people you are seeing today need. Read 2pgs of the white handbook together, a section of Adjusting to Missionary Life, and the monthly scripture in tandem. Discuss and role play what you are teaching today. Discuss what you both studied in personal study. Have a deep doctrine talk and have your minds blown together. Drink another bottle of water.
10-11am- Yay for 12 Week. The guide for new missionaries. Read it together and begin watching The District videos/ reading PMG. Love it. Glory in it. 3 hours of study goes away after training. Go to the ladies room, and then drink a 3rd bottle of water.
11-Noon- Eat a fantastic lunch of either ramen, mac n cheese, or whatever leftovers you have from members.
Noon-6pm- Leave the apartment! Get in the choppa and peal out of the parking lot to go bring the gospel to the people of the 25 townships you cover. Go to your set appointments for the day, and just love the people: they talk for days and are so energetic. Take along your FAIE (foreign accent interpreting ears), they are vital to survival! Teach the less actives the gospel and try to bring them closer to God. Love them, serve them, and befriend them. Show them you care! People won't "care how much you know, until they know how much you care."   In between or after or before, go try potential investigators listed in the Area Book. See how they are, ask if there is anything you can do for them- but most of the time get the answer "I have my own religion". Love them anyways. Be kind to them anyways as they slam the door in your faces. Smile and move on. Feel the sadness that comes when people don't accept the gospel. Don't take anything personally! They don't know you, they just aren't one of the prepared. If you have time left over and you've run out of potentials (doesn't happen), knock doors! And then have the above happen again. Keep on keeping on, even as people are mean. Because most of the time, people are super nice! They are friendly and talkative out here, and that's the norm.
6-9pm- At some point you need to eat! It's been 6hrs, and you're starving- but your members are on top of it and are super amazing. So they feed you almost every night. You have chicken and rice 5/7 nights, and pizza or something else the other 2 nights. You love the members and you have an amazing time talking with them and Sister Brown. You laugh more than you have in your life, and your love for them grows wider and wider until you feel like you cannot possibly contain it in your heart. It comes out in your smiles and laughter, in your listening and questions, and in your deep love and sharing of the gospel. They can tell, they feel it and they also feel the Spirit. You rejoice afterwards that the Spirit was so strong! You have nothing but good things to say and talk about with Sister Brown in the car. You want to roll home and die from the amount of good food you just ate. You think you will never be this full in your life again...until the next night. You cherish the left overs that are stacked in your fridge, and you despair as you throw them out because you hadn't gotten around to eating them yet and they went bad.  You then continue to try and find new investigators before or after your hour dinner appointment.
9-9:30pm- Planning for your next day! Talk about the people you are going to visit and have set appointments for, and the people you are going to try and see. Sync your iPads at the church because your apartment doesn't have wifi, but you're expected to sync several times a day....ahem.
9:30-10:30pm- Prepare for bed!!! Exhaustedly take off what's left of your makeup and put on pjs. Stumble to the bedside and kneel to pray. Spend a long time in conversation with Heavenly Father. Tell Him your desires and frustrations, don't hold anything back! He already knows your heart, He just wants you to ask and talk to Him. Be grateful. Strive to be humble. Love Him.
10:30pm- Zonk out as you joyously lay your head on your wonderful feather pillow on your bed of fluffy clouds.

So that's that! 

Stay Jersey Strong

Love, Sister McAllister

Nah, Jk. i wouldn't do that to you!

My week was pretty great! it was long but also flew by and I really have no idea what happened lol

We taught a new investigator and it was super sweet. She's 80 and she's from Jamaica. She says she is filled with the Holy Spirit and so can speak in tongues, and in her teaching record it says that she does "voodoo", so we were like ya lets go! She's suuuuuuper cool. We were waiting the whole time for her to bust out babbling in "tongues", but she never did. She listened and asked questions, and when we got to Joseph Smith she said "Why have I not heard of him?" and then we told her about there only being one true church and she was like "Why have I not heard this before? I want to be a part of that church." Sweeeeet. So shes coming to church this Sunday, hopefully.

Went to Ellis again. Round 3 was great! It was actually pretty slow for once and not crazy hectic as its been both times before. We got to go watch the movie about Ellis and the immigrants, and we could kinda just stand around and talk with each other and the nice workers there. i met 4 people from Northern Ireland--their accents were AMAZING. I loved it. I was like please keep talking to me! One guy talked to me for 15 min about his family and ireland and everything. And i told him I'm from Scotland-- he told me i better get there soon, and when I do I need to bring my kilt and eat the haggis. He was super nice! I wanted him to take me back with him! Man. I love Ellis. I want to work there after the mish. They get paid pretty well, and they do what I'm doing every time! Awesome stuff ppl.

On Sunday we were combined with Englewood ward and the Korean Branch becuz their building was having plumbing probs, so the chapel was overfull and squished. But it was sweet! S. Brown loved seeing all her people :)

That's about it for me, I can't think right now and the Elders are bein lil flips behind me wrestling in the FHC, man I love em :)

Love you all!

Stay Jersey Strong.

Love,

Sister McAllister

P.S. Question time! What's goin on in the world? Anything crazy or scary or weird? How's the ward? What's Sci's email? I heard there were fires in the west? 

  Tell Dana and Jenna and Kiley thanks for their letters and thank Pres for his stamp! There awesome :)

 

 

Weeds and Thrift Shoppin Life...August 24, 2015

My peeps, y'all are for keeps!

Yay for the girls and their awesomeness in VB! Kill em this season! 

Thomas is an adorable name for the McCombs' baby!

I'm glad you like your souvenirs! I put a lot of thought and effort into them, so I know you'll cherish them 5ever because they're from moi. ;)

I TOTALLY CALLED YOUR CALLING! I turned to S.Brown and was like "flip. my moms not gonna tell me til Mon, I wanna know now!" and then I was like--I bet she'll be called stake since it's big and she's alrdy been RS pres, so what would she be excited about----girls camp, duh! Bam. I'm so good. *brushes off shoulders* thank you, thank you. ;)

Elder Pelsue is tight! Pres Smith told me about him before I got out here and then I happened to meet him at the zone conference right before he left for home! He looked so familiar and I realized it's because we went on trek together! Small world indeed :)

Psh, the error of my ways? Softball is still much better than VB. I just have the skills to play now- I would never play before because I didn't know how and thought I'd look like a dweeb (news flash, I totally do out here), but whatevs, I'm ballin'.

I get to go to Ellis every month I'm in an area close enough to it! So here's hoping I stay in the north.

JENNA!!!! INDEXING IS THE BEST! I love it! I really got into it at BYU, I would do it all the time in my free time! Family history is so cool <3

Please, send me the songs however they'll fit! I don't care how many emails it takes---y'all are wonderful! Thank you!!!!

So this week was pretty fantastic. 

S. Brown and I really are best friends- my goodness, you can't put us together for anything, we just crack up in 5 seconds! I don't even need to work out because I'm getting abs from the laughter. I think our "me" sides have come out, ya we were ourselves before, but now that we've been together a transfer its all comin out. Its so awesome that we can be ourselves with each other tho! I love not worrying about what my comp thinks of me, or how are we going to get along, or I have to sacrifice this to keep the peace; we're just so chill and laid back, it's awesome! Shoot, I can already tell we're gonna be besties4lyfe #5Eva    and I'm gonna make sure PT keeps us together for the rest of her mission, and then i can get a new comp in March---that's how it'll work. You'll see.

We did service this week (pulling weeds again, I think it's spreading somehow #PunsForLife). The weeds we pulled were taller than we were though, so that was pretty interesting. We had to get the heavy duty clippers to chop the treeweeds in half before we could throw em in the can. We were pretty itchy afterwards, and I swear that one stinkin wasp was following me for hours. Gah, why do the bugs I hate follow me? I know I'm irresistible, but cut me some slaaaaccckkkk.

Anyways, transfer conference was last week and EVERYTHING changed. Holy cow. We now have 4 APs, 2 are travelling and they go on 3 day exchanges with the elders instead of 1 day with the ZLs, the Koreans aren't in our zone anymore :(, my district leader left, we got a new ZL because the old one is now a travelling AP, 20 missionaries left and only 14 came in, and a lot of people got doubled out of their areas. It was crazy. And it was the only transfer conf that S. Brown hasn't been too her whole mission, and she knows these people better than I do, so she was flippin out. Things are sooooo weird now, but I love it!

I went to a chiropractor on Friday. It was swweeeeeeeeeeet. S. Brown needed her hips and back adjusted, and I had been aching for a while too- so we went to a member who is a chiropractor and he fixed us for free #MembersAreTheBest! He cracked my neck and got the muscle spasms out and I was just floating on cloud 9 the rest of the day. My neck is so tension free! It's so wonderful. My neck cracked at least 20 times each side. It was so loud! The lil jokester looked out the window and was like "wow, I wonder if those people heard that!" haha   He looked at me and was like "I'm the chiropractor here and even I'm surprised."  Boy, that's when you know you done messed up (a a ron). but now 19 years or tension have left my neck and back--- I feel like a new person *insert majestic singing here*

3 favorite families right here----the Brossard's, the Nashes, and the Madariaga's. Bishop Brossard and his family are so chill. He's this little korean man that can actually jump and play VB, his kids are lil spiritual walking faith bombs, and his wife is super sweet. I love chillin with them. The Madariaga's have the cutest relationship I have ever seen and I want one like it! They are both from the Philippines and they both served in the same mission at the same time (which is funny because they didn't like each other). They are so funny! They were telling us stories about all these different things, and then we got on the subject of how no one likes to wear clothes here and S. Madariaga goes "There was a man running shirtless as we were driving and I told him (her husband) to slow down so I could look at his abs!" and he goes "yeah, so I did, and I told her not to break her neck" hahahaha I died! And with their Filipino accents its sooooooo cute/funny. Man, that was one good dinner!  The Nashes are my people! holy cow, they literally get me. My Coloradans are so chill. I love talking to them all the time/chilling with them/ and it's hard too because Megan just left for Boise State and she was super awesome too. But whatever, the boys are cool too. S. Nash made HOMEMADE STRAWBERRY JAM LIKE YOURS MOM!!!! And she gave me some!!!!!! *insert my dead body here*  I looooooooooooooooooove theeeeeeeeeeemmmmmmmmmmm.

Also, S. Brown is going to adopt me into her poly family, and I am officially to be known, now and forevermore, as a poly sista. I have been accepted into the fold! #Whaddup #AreYouProudMomma?

But forreal, S.Brown and I are gonna hang all the time in Utah when I get home. We gonna be sistas for lyfe.

I didn't have time to write about my typical day mom, I'm so sorry! But I'll for sure send it next week!

I love you all, stay fly.

Stay Jersey Strong.

Sister McAllister

 McDonald's with a conveyor belt?

 these girls crack me up....2 peas in a pod

 friends for life

Volleyball and Migraines...August 17, 2015

Hello all you wonderful people in the West- y'all best stay there cuz things are too weird in the East.... And I don't want to share ;)

alrighty, my week went a little like this:

Pday we played 2 hours of vball with our bishop before he left for Denver and with the Nash's from Highlands Ranch #MyPeople.  I'm not too shabby at Vball! I'm gonna have mad skills when I get home so y'all better watch out ;) We also then played 2 more hours of vball with the elders and the Nashs, 1 hour of gator ball, and 30 min of basketball in which i scored 4 points #PostLife  So yaaaa ,we were pretty sore the next day lol- all worth it tho!

Wednesday our member who was going to feed us dinner had to cancel because her daughter's at girl's camp and something went weird so she didn't know what her and her husband were gonna do so she just gave us $40. Yup. 40 dang dollars to buy ourselves dinner. I'm like, how much do you think we eat/spend in a meal??? But whatever, we got the best pizza I have ever eaten in my life and bought Subway for lunch the next day. I don't think I'll ever be able to eat Dominos or Little Caesars again. #JerseyPizzaIsLife

Thursday we helped the people we did FASFA for a while ago register for some different classes becuz he didn't know how to and his little Filipino mom doesn't do English well enough to even attempt it haha, so we helped out with that and are apparently the "lifesavers" and "only reason my son is going to college"...so ya, we're basically heroes here in Emerson, it's NBD *brushes off shoulder*

FRIDAY. We went on a double exchange with the senior sisters in Paterson. yaaaaaaaaaaaaassssssssssssss. My first experience in the hooooooood. I loved it! My goodness, the people are crazy and weird and slightly sketch sometimes but they're AWESOME! We went to downtown Patty looking for inactives and it was tight. People would be sitting on the corner rollin one and stop to talk to us becuz we are the "people of God". Everybody's out on their porches allllll the time, there's block dance party's where they blast music to be heard down the whole block! It's wonderful. I had to wash my hands pretty well when we got back, but it was so cool.

Saturday-----S. Brown and I went to Ellis again! I don't think I'll ever get tired of seeing the skyline. I love the city so much! It's so awesome to help out so many people trying to find their ancestors. Each time the spirit is SO strong! I also met the coolest old lady there. She's from Toledo, Ohio and she was visiting NY for the 1st time with her daughter. I had a really long convo with her about ancestry and what I'm doing here and why I volunteer/am a missionary. We talked about how God oftentimes answers our prayers through other people, and she turned to me and was like "I know! You are an answer to my prayers!" and I'm like what??? but it was awesome. She made me soooo happy. She has pajama days becuz she is retired now, but she has days where she doesn't even look in the mirror and she doesn't bother about getting ready and she just does puzzles and reads all day. I'm like- best invention ever!!!! Shoot, I'm always gonna remember the coolest lady I ever met at Ellis on my mission told me about pajama days. Love her, she's awesome :)

Saturday we also went to a baptism for S. Brown's old investigator from Englewood. So that was super cool too.

Sunday we had a huge potluck after church, and we also taught primary and sunday school again this week. So it was a great day as well.

FUNNY stuff: S. Brown gets migraines, which ok that stinks and I feel suuuuuuper bad about it, but she also gets super high when she does. Like me when I got my wisdom teeth out. So it's been a hilarious week :)

Also, as stated above, I have mad vball skillz. Everyone asks me if I played in HS, and I'm like nope. Black sheep of the family over herr.

Anyways, thanks for working on my songs, I know it's a lot and y'all are busy and I keep adding things for you to do liiiikkkkeeee: maybe sending me my wisdom teeth vids cuz S. Brown wants em, and my poems as well. 

I love you all!!! Stay awesome possums over there in da west :)

Stay Jersey Strong.

Love, Sister McAllister

P.S. I did sealings for the 1st time in the temple when we went. It was super cool! I loved it :D

 

 Her District leader is leaving so this is her last pic of them all together

 Double exchange with senior sisters

 Ellis Island

August 10, 2015

Hello to you my fantastic mother.

Ya, 3 years of language just looks better on your application, it's not required- so yay for Jenna dropping it! Ms Angela is the best and I love her- please tell her I said so!!! 

I am currently sending KK all of my good luck vibes for her tryouts. And I'll send the rest to Jenna next week :)  Volleyball is pretty sweet- I think I'm gonna come back a true playa cuz I'm working on my skillz out here! I'm not too shabby according to Sister Brown!!! I miss sports in HS though, those were the good ole days- cherish em girls!!! Way to go Camrie and Haley- I love those girls/their families :D  We got a good group of ppl out there in CO. HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!!! I CAN'T BELIEVE ITS BEEN 26 YEARS!!!!! WOWEE! Have a fantastic time celebrating that!

My week was pretty much amazing. I don't really remember any of it except for this weekend though, so bear with me in this letter!

I know we did service at one point- we pulled weeds for a member in their huge 10x4 garden. That was a little hot and sweaty, but we got oatmeal chocolate chip cookies so whatever. It was worth it.

We also visited the squirrel man's house and he showed us a super sketch video. We were having a good lesson and he goes "lemme pull up the beginning of this video on Netflix, it's about a Mormon missionary who's really an axe murderer but the beginning is so real!" and Sister Brown and I turned to each other like "whaaaaaaa?????". Anyways we were like 'nah. don't. please leave it off.' but he pulled it up anyways, and just on the opening credits you could feel the Spirit leave. We got such a bad feeling, and both of us were holding up BoMs so we didn't have to look at the screen and we were trying to bring the Spirit back but the movie is sooo sketch. It was horrible. Long story short, we left in like 2 seconds. Like bye, we out. We are not about dat life.

COOL STORY: We went to an apartment complex that you have to use buzzers to get in!!!!! I'm really in the east coast!!! I was sooooo excited! The people living there were probably creeped out, but whatever. It was cool!

COOLER STORY: We've started up a Friday night sports night for our ward! We let everyone know about it and we tell them all to bring their friends too so we got a huge turnout last week! A lot of less actives and recent converts came and it was just an awesome night! Yay for using sports to bring people to the gospel!

COOLEST STORY: I went to the temple on Saturday! I went inside NYC! I went through the Lincoln Tunnel! I walked the streets of NYC! It was fantastic! You're just driving along in NY and trying to avoid death-by-taxi-drivers when all the sudden- BAM- the temple! It's just right there on the corner next to Central Park and the Lincoln Center. It's wonderful. You walk inside and the sounds just fade. It's so quiet in there. In the session I actually forgot I was in NY for a while. It's so beautiful too! The inside, it is just gorgeous stained glass and marble and silver and gold and clean and pure and white and celestial. I loved it! I learned so many new things this trip too! I don't know if it was just because its my first time in the mission field, or because the thing that's sometimes switched in the temple was new and everything about it was amazing (like the others, but I understood so much more this time). Idk, but whatever the reason, so much was clarified and expounded upon and built upon on this trip. I love it!  The blessings of the temple are endless. I love thinking about the covenants we make there and the blessings that God will give us for following the gospel and doing as He commands. As President Monson said "Always have the temple in your sights!". There is no better place to be. There is no place more holy on earth. You have to get there. It is SO amazing.

After the temple we went to Maplewood where S. Brown's Recent Converts are from. It's straight up hood. It's awesome. I loved the people she introduced me too, they're all so real there.

Yesterday was S.Brown's bday, so we celebrated that at the Cardoso's. She's so sweet. She made 2 cakes and got presents and everything- some for me too! We love her so much, and she's really going through a hard time right now- so if y'all could pray for her that'd be wonderful! I know that S.Brown and I are both here for her. It's crazy to realize your purpose out here. I love these people so much, and it really breaks my heart when they are hurting. S.Brown and I's eyes are soooo puffy this morning from last night.

Anyways, that's basically all I got this week! Sorry for the shortness of the letter, my brain is so fried right now! I can't remember what happened on Friday, let alone Tues. Hopefully next weeks will be better! I love you all!!!

Stay Jersey Strong.

Love,

Sister McAllister

PS My bishop is going to Denver today...not jealous at all.

PPS I wrote this and didn't know where it could fit logically in my letter (#Spock) so here: Some things you need to know about Jersey: they take their pizza VERY seriously, sometimes there are 5 pizza parlors on one block, you pay AFTER you eat anywhere, sometimes in order to turn left you must FIRST turn right, left turn lanes seldom exist, 2 lane roads don't exist unless you're on the parkway, you can't turn right on a red light, the majority of cop cars are undercover, no one likes wearing clothes apparently #ShortsThatAreBasicallyUnderwear, if you're not going 20 over- you're slow, ain't nobody got time for nothin, bus stops exist every 50ft, there are large communities of Jewish people, there are Catholic high schools in every town, there are lots of Hindus with cool clothes, little dogs are the only dogs, foreign-accent interpretation is a survival skill, tolls are life, ceiling lights don't exist #LampsEverywhere, sink disposals are a foreign concept, what is AC that's not a swamp cooler?, people would rather have a cool car than a nice house, if you smile at the cashier they ask "why you so happy? I didn't do nothin for ya...", if you're nice to strangers you're basically an alien from the depths of space, parallel parking is the only way to park, and I apparently have an accent.

 Their temple group

 Sis. Brown's bday dinner

 One of the 1st military pocket sized BoM dated 1943

 Avenger socks for $3

PT is the best, and Christian music is on point. That is all....August 3, 2015

Yo respondo a tu carta------   (Learning Spanish from an app. holla.  #WhoKnew?)

Hello Mommacita! And everyone else reading this! (when did I get so popular? oh wait... ;)  

East Coast life is fabulous. I am loving it out here! And ya know, despite how much I complain about the humidity, it's not that bad. Like everyone over dramatized it and told me all these gruesome horror stories- not really but you get my point- and it's not to bad. I kinda like it actually.

I'm glad you love my letters! I try to stay upbeat and all that. I think it helps a lot that my comp is amazing and we can just be our dorky annoying selves with each other and cry together from laughing so hard! Oh, btw, did you get the video I sent last week? Or did that not show up as well? And I'm plenty negative with myself haha, I just internalize it cuz I don't like telling peeps my probs #Introvert4Life BUT I do try to stay positive and focus on the positives :)

I love NYC so much. My goodness, when I first saw it I was like "I will live there someday". Ya, I know mom, we'll see if that actually happens- cuz we all know I love my mountains and open air- but something in me just wants it soooo bad. I have no idea where it came from!

I did indeed carry a watermelon, and every second of it I was laughing internally about that. My comp hasn't seen Dirty Dancing, so she just looked at me like I was crazy (spoiler alert: I am) while I was busting up and carrying a watermelon outta Shop Rite. yeeeaaahhhh, sometimes I think I'm too awkward to exist lol

I got your package! And Gma's! And Kasey's MTC letter! YAY! We stopped by the mission office on our way back from Morristown this week, so that's how I got them so fast :)  Good job following the rules tho momma! Cuz I really don't know anything, and maybe it's just missionary gossip that that's why the rule was instituted? IDK, so playing it safe is good. Oh and I also got a letter from Jan Christensen. So funny, his opening line was "Dear Sister McAllister, i bet you're wondering who this brother christensen is..." and I was legit thinking that the whole time trying to rack my brains and figure out who it was haha! He's a keeper for a HT tho!

I'm glad Jenna got the Pairsh approval! They're so great! Now for their baptism.... ;)

EMILY IS GOING TO OHIO??!?!?!?!?! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYY EAST USA SWAAAAAGGGGG!!!! I'm glad you could all do that for her opening! that's so awesome! A couple of friends from BYU and from the MTC I hung out with went to Ohio, IDK which mission - probs Columbus- but ya never know :)

I'm glad Jenna will have a good seminary teacher this year! I wish some of mine were not as boring ya know? And that I had had only one like Sister Brown instead of 5....but eh, c'est la vie. #MyFrenchIsKickingBackIn!

Hope ya have fun at school tomorrow! Don't kill those darn admins yet, maybe wait a week? ;)

It was weird seeing the 4th of July pic with only 4 of you...but y'all are gorgeous so whatevs.

So this week was veeeeerrrryy slow. We got juked left and right and forward and behind and up and down and sideways and crossways and kiddy corner and 360 and all that. Kinda depressing. The guy we had on date to baptize yesterday has been avoiding us for 2 weeks, and the people we try to meet up with or see don't show up, or say "eh, not today". I was surprised to learn at the end of the week that we had 14 lessons, cuz it felt like we had had 4. oh well. C'est la vie to that as well! haha

Despite that, it was a pretty fun week!  We had dinner with a member, Br. D, this week; and I gotta tell ya, I love him. He's so sarcastic, but he keeps a serious face, and he's blunt and honest and just your stereotypical Jersey man. It's awesome! Sister Brown's been telling me how like the past sisters have all been like "he's mean" or "he's so hurtful" and all these different things, but he's not! He's just super sarcastic and blunt! You'll like say "wow it's a beautiful day out!" and he'll go "wow, took ya that long to figure it out?". or something like that, ya know? Gah, he reminds me so much of home, I love it! I wanna hang with him like alllllll day! And he took me seriously when I said I want to be an astronaut, and we talked about the logistics of getting there and where I'd have to work, and where I was going to school and all these different things. He's super chill. It's awesome.

Monday we played volleyball and gator ball with all the elders again. I really love em. They're hilarious! My zone is awesome :)

We had Specialized Training on Wed this week. It's for all the trainers and trainees and you basically split off and sit and all the trainers talk about their trainees and vice versa. So it was real nice to sit with the Taggart's and just have a group discussion about what we're all struggling with and what we all love and how we're trying to grow. It was really cool :)

Thursday we had interviews with PT (President Taggart). He's so cool. I swear he's gonna become a 2nd dad once he gets to know me better- I already love him thats all I know. He ate lunch with Sister Brown and I too. The Elders offered to eat with him and he was like "nah, I think I'll eat with these nice sisters instead. You go have fun now." He's real funny too. He's great!

In other news, we dropped John this week :(  We met with him again and had an awesome lesson with the Spirit and everything and he just said "I'm devoted to my religion. Catholicism is true and right. I won't be converted.". He said he'd keep reading the BoM, so idk, maybe there's hope in the future for him!

We went to the squirrel man's house this week as well. We taught about family history and he pulled out this super old video from the 50s of his family! It was SO cool! I loved the clothes and the cars and the simplicity and the houses and everything. 50s were the bomb man.

We went to a members house to eat the other day, and she's Jamaican. Everything she says is hilarious! She's so outgoing and her accent makes everything 1000 times better.

Saw another member the other day- she's 94! Her old folks home is soooooo classy. It's like walking into the Bellagio in Vegas or something! Everything is so posh and classy, including her! She's so sweet :)

Helped another member with FASFA the other day too. She was trying to do it for her son cuz he doesn't really care about anything right now, but she couldn't figure it out. So in her little Filipino accent she was like "Help, help! The government doesn't want to give me money! I need the money to send this nobody to college!" It was pretty funny in her accent anyway...

We also spent hours and hours this week putting the huge binder full of teaching records called the Area Book into our iPads....yaaaay, filing. I'm so glad that's done. #NoMorePaper

BEST NEWS THIS WEEK!!!!!------ I get to go to the temple on SATURDAY!!!!!!!!!!! I'm soooooo excited! I'm like getting to do everything in the first transfer I'm here! It's awesome! :D

Sorry not much happened this week, I wish I had more to tell you! I mean, I could just blab on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on about how wonderful I am, but I don't think you need that reminder ;)

Anyways, I love you all!

Stay Jersey Strong

Love,  Sister McAllister