This Blizzard Ain't Got Nothing On Me....January 25, 2016

It's ok, I survived. Barely. Clinging to my life and warmth and
survival. Had to fight off a pack of wild turkeys for food. Went
scrounging thru the sewers for something to eat. There was destruction
and death everywhere. Hardly anyone survived. But I did it! We managed
thru sheer grit and willpower. On this day, we decided the storm would
not own us- but we would own the storm. *dramatic trudge thru 2ft of
snow into the distance*

Hahaha
HELLO EVERYONE! Holy moly it feels like a year since I last talked
(well emailed) with y'all. This week was soooooo long! But amazing ❤️

I am SO BEYOND GLAD to hear that the Broncos won!!! Here we go Super
Bowl 50!!!!! Gah, that's so exciting!

Ok, I know y'all want to hear about my CRAZY AWESOME INSANE ADVENTURES
WITH THE HUGE NOR'EASTER, but I'm going to go in chronological order
as I do most emails ;)

Monday was a pday spent playing intense basketball with the elders,
and obliging my dying companion as she spent 2ish hours getting her
hair dyed. My backside was a little sore for sitting for so long, but
it was ok. Patience is my middle name. Then we went and saw the
awesomesauce Sister Woods. She made really good spaghetti for us and
we had some good conversation over my first ever glass of herbal tea.
It was actually really good. I was pleasantly surprised lol. It's
chamomile with vanilla and honey and the secret ingredient is vanilla
creamer that normal ppl put in coffee. But us cool ppl put in our A-OK
herbal tea.

Tuesday we once again went out with Attorious whom I love dearly with
all my heart. She's such a special flower, but she's like the most
down to earth chill person ever. "So great my man, so great!"

Wednesday we had the amazing Worldwide Missionary Broadcast!!! It's
the first worldwide broadcast they've done in 10+ years! I'll just
kinda briefly go through my favorite things from each speaker. Elder
Andersen started by explaining that we as missionaries should always
have "His name on our lips". Whenever we are unsure of what to say or
do, that's when we speak of the Savior and testify of Him and His
Atonement. As missionaries "we teach repentance and baptize converts."
And we help them know that the Doctrine of Christ can only be received
through revelation. They have to ask- in order to know- in order to
begin changing. Then Elder Bednar lead a discussion with missionaries
from the Ogden Mission (which if I was a part of I would be sitting in
a back corner not making eye contact to answer any of his questions
lol) but he taught about how we as missionaries can bring the doctrine
"unto" the hearts of our investigators, but only the Holy Ghost can
bring it "into" their hearts. And that without the Holy Ghost we
missionaries are "utterly incapable of doing what we have been called
to do." Brother (Elder?) Waddell said that when we invite others to
keep commitments, we are inviting them to "become agents rather than
an object." Elder Clayton reminded us that member involvement leads to
the most baptisms. We have to be confident when asking for referrals
from them, and we have to be persistent and smart in the questions we
ask. And finally, Elder Oaks took us by the shoulders and shook our
naive missionary bodies when he told us to "have the Doctrine of
Christ engraved in your hearts" and that we are called to "introduce
righteousness and heaven's laws to the world". Man is that a big
calling. It's so humbling to know that the Lord truly does call the
"weak and simple" to do His work. How in the world can I introduce
people to the laws of heaven and have them accept it when their whole
life they've been taught something different?? But the Lord can. And I
can only be His instrument, to be used as needed.

On Thursday s. Kafu had her dying temple trip, so I went on exchange
up in Maplewood for the day. It was so nice to be up in the North
again! I miss it haha

Friday was awesome! I got to take pictures with Barbi (short,
ironically, for Barbecue) and we got to meet with Sister Woods again!
And then that night we got to meet with a new investigator Chris! We
talked with him and his brother on their porch in the cold the whole
time, but we could have stayed there all night with the 2 of them. We
went through the whole Restoration and they had question after
question after question and it was great! He said that the last time
the sisters came around they talked to him about prayer in passing,
and he thought why not so he started praying, and because of that the
Lord helped him stop some WoW stuff!! And when we asked him this time
that when he knows it's true will he be baptized he said...and I
quote..."of course!!"     Of course??! Of course??!! That never
happens! Ever! And then we invited him to read the Book of Mormon and
the Restoration pamphlet and all that and he said "man, you guys are
making me want to go inside and talk to God right now."  !!!!!! Gah.
It's so beautiful and I just want to jump around every time I think
about it. We're meeting with him again  on Tuesday!

And now. To the moment you all have been waiting for. LET IT SNOW LET
IT SNOW LET IT SNOW!!!
We have indeed been snowed in for the past 2 days- I'm kinda going
stir crazy! It snowed for like literally 36 hrs starting on Friday
night. And lemme tell you, the Jerseyites went CRAZY. The shelves at
the grocery store were not only bare of the normal things like bread
and milk, but of paper towels and toilet paper...like how much do
y'all think you're going to go through in the weekend were snowed
in??? They all went mad and the grocery stores started closing on
Thurs and Fri because of it lol. They're just super hypersensitive to
the word *whispers* storm out here. Ever since Sandy they kinda over
do it for most things, which I guess isn't bad considering Sandy took
everyone by surprise.
So yeah, we've been pretty cooped up. And you know how fast my sanity
gets thrown out the window when I'm bored! Lol! I feel so bad for S.
Kafu. But we went and walked to McDonalds on Saturday night- in the 2
ft of snow while the wind is still blowing and it's still snowing-
only to find it closed! So we went to the Chinese place across the
street and talked to the cashier lady a bit. She was super nice. Then
we ran around like little children and jumped in the snow because we
could. And I got a lot of my energy out- It was great!  We also got a
call that night that all church meetings were cancelled the next day.
Soooooo, Sunday was a repeat of the previous day, except we couldn't
go out anywhere to eat haha.  But we have awesome Zone Leaders who
live in our same complex and they have members who invited them over
for breakfast and a lesson since church was cancelled. So we went. And
ate glorious waffles and eggs and bacon. Only problem was- they spoke
Spanish. The whole time. And s. Kafu and I were the only ones who
couldn't in that big group. So that was fun! Lol
The snow has made me feel at home here. It was so bizarre to me that
it wasn't snowing and it was Oct, then Nov, then Dec where is was 60
on Christmas, then most of January...and now there's snow!!! I was so
excited when I heard about the blizzard. It was a perfect way to spend
my 7 month mark :)

We've spent the past 2 days digging out cars, pushing out stuck cars,
wading thru snow, etc etc. so to say I'm a little sore is an
understatement haha! But it's been so great. Just another way to
serve! I love Jersey. I get all mushy inside when I think about it
hahaha

And now, today. I am currently in Elizabeth after fighting thru
traffic and snow and Jersey drivers, I am here for pday while s. Kafu
goes on her dying trip to Ellis and the Statue. Sooooo this'll be a
fun day haha :)

Hope y'all are staying warm and safe over there in the west!
Love you all!
Stay Jersey Strong.
Love, Sister McAllister

 walking to McDonald's in the snowstorm to find it closed!

Breaking and Entering and Other Such Minor Things... *cough*.....January 18, 2016

Hello Mom! (and all you blog readers, cant forget about my fan club now haha ;)

It's pretty awesome that y'all are playing with the missionaries on Pday so much now! Having members to hang with is the best! E. Stark and Tu'ifua seem pretty awesome- wish I could meet them.  And yes, Tongans do eat horse and some eat dog as well (but not all of them do). The extent of my integration into the culture is learning some random phrases and eating Spam and rice all the time. It's actually pretty great- i love it!

For pday today we are gonna head over to the Post Office so we can figure out how we're gonna get all of S. Kafu's stuff home. And then we're packing her stuff. And then we're going to a members house so she can dye S. Kafu's hair... I've learned a lot of patience and humility this transfer haha- not everything is about me, and sometimes i just gotta bite my tongue and be nice :)  But its great, only 2 weeks left to go now til shes on her plane home! Crazy crazy.

Also, yes. You told me about the shooting at Kum and Go and how Mrs. (haha i almost called her Sister) Parish witnessed it. Glad everyone is ok and that they were able to lock down the school and make sure that y'all were safe. It was too close to home this time- the world's getting scarier and scarier for sure.

Snap momma, you're a busy bee this week! That's awesome though that you have so many ppl wanting you to sub :)

Yup, this Wed we have a missionary broadcast for 2hrs about teaching Repentance and Baptizing. Its really been a focus here for the past month or so, so I'm excited for the broadcast as well.

S. Kafu dies on Feb 3. She goes on her departing trip to the temple on Thurs and then to the Statue of Liberty on Mon. I'll be going on exchange with a Spanish sister in Princeton, so that should be fun! Gotta start brushing up on my Spanish now haha

This week was great!

Monday we had an awesome lesson with a Less Active and her Recent Convert son after pday. We taught them the Gospel of Jesus Christ and talked a lot about repentance and the process of it. Were going through the lessons again with Seven because you gotta do that after baptism and he was baptized in November. It went amazing, they're both super solid and she's working towards the temple and they're both making huge steps in the right direction. It's awesome!

Tuesday we had zone conference in East Brunswick. It was great, very spiritual. And i got to see S. Brown so that was ahmayzing. Then i got my hair trimmed real fast by the member dying s. kafus hair.

Had to take our car in this week to get the oil changed, fluids topped, and tires rotated. So that took some time. But i got an awesome Chevy hat from Pep Boys, so i think it was worth it! lol

Friday we went running from apt to apt all day. We had 5 scheduled in all different parts of our area, and we had to pick up and drop off TeamUps and all this other stuff so it was just crazy! But, i felt the Spirit super strong during a lesson with our most recent investigator Carmel. She asked me about Joseph Smith, so I explained the background and then recited the First Vision and it was just amazing, Idk what it was about this week- but i really noticed the Spirit a lot more. Whether from listening extra hard to music, or paying attention to certain words in a talk or song, or whatever- but I literally teared up like 3 times each day. I'm turning into even more of a baby lol! But its ok, I'm embracing it.

Now I shall tell you the hilarity of what happened to us Friday night. Preface: to get into our apartment there's 2 doors, an outside door that allows you into the hallway of apartments, and then our door itself. We were going out to the dumpster to throw some trash away, so we left our door unlocked and S. Kafu left the keys in the aprt (something I didn't know until too late lol). When we got to the outside door, it was locked....ugh. We went searching for our neighbors but they wouldn't answer their doors, so we were kinda stuck. Anyways, the only way you can get into our aprt is thru the teeny tiny bathroom window that's broken (which is slightly disturbing how easy it was to break into our own place. But I digress) so we have the BR window open and ready for crawling thru, and I ain't gonna crawl thru that so I was making the one who forgot the keys do it....but she's way too big lol. She can't hoist herself up, even with me boosting her. So we decided I'd do it. *sigh* She got down on her hands and knees and I literally stepped on her back and launched myself into the window. Well, I got about half way thru and I got stuck, because my face was about to slam into the toilet inside, and that wouldn't be too fun haha. At this point my huge behind and legs are hanging out the window while I'm red faced and holding myself up with one arm to stop myself from falling face first into the toilet/counter. I was basically doing one of those Buff People Push Ups where they do a hand stand and then lower and raise their WHOLE selves with their arms...man I'm glad I got these big guns ;)  haha! So I like slithered and wiggled and held myself until I could gently collapse onto the BR floor! It was an adventure for sure. I wish we coulda taken a video of it or something haha. But yeah, I'm basically a pro now at breaking into places lol #MissionSkillz

Also, it just snowed yesterday for the first time here. So thats fun haha

That's my week, I'll probably have a lot more stories for you next week- becuz our plans for this one are nuts!

Love you all!

Stay Warm!

Stay Jersey Strong.

Love, Sister McAllister 

 new hat from Pep Boys

 Poly Swag...her current companion to the left, her first companion to the right

 Subway is taunting her with the new movie she has to wait to see

Zone Conference

1 Month in Eatontown....January 11, 2016

Hello (hello) Hello (hello) [I] welcome you today! Hello (hello)...idk how the rest of the song goes but just sing it to yourselves and know that I am singing right a long with you! haha

First things First Family:

maaaaannnn Ty stayed forevur. Last year the bum ditched out on me after like 4 days! What a "flippin joke dude" ;)  Tell him he's completely whipped and he needs to mail me his man card lol! Kenzie's got him wrapped around her little finger for sure >:)

wowowowowowow MOM! You're a missionary! Oh my gosh it'll be the funnest thing ever and you can go on team-ups with the missionaries and feel the Spirit super strong and love life and make new friends and fellowship people AND also make sure the missionaries get fed becuz lets be honest that's like SUPER important to elders haha. I'm so excited for you!

Have fun at your massage! We'll go together when I get back so I can have my 1st ever one- I guess I'll have to just be grateful for the tennis ball and frozen water bottle massages my feet get lol!

It's Sister Kafu Latu-Vaki (her first name is Kilisitina, but dont tell her i told you;)  And she's doing good- I mean super trunky, but who wouldnt be when you got 3 weeks left *shrugs*

MY LOVELY SISTERS WHOM I LOVE SO MUCH: WHY IS MY INBOX NOT FILLED WITH BEAUTIFUL LETTERS PROFESSING YOUR AMAZINGNESS AT LIFE?? WHY IS IT WAILING AND CRYING BECAUSE YOU WILL NOT FILL IT WITH LETTERS AND PICTURES?? PLEASE LIKEN THE SCRIPTURES TO YOURSELVES AND "FEED MY [INBOX]". hahahah haha ha ha. ha. huh. but for real doe. Are you going on strike? Are you boycotting letters to me? Whats the dealio sisters?? Do i need to beg and plead? Cuz i just might lol

Anyways, enough with my dramatic side-------------~~~~~~~~~/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\<><><><><>^v^v^v

(^ i apologize for my randomness, but sometimes you just gotta spice things up a bit)

Time for a snapshot view of my week!

Tuesday we had a YSA come out with us for the whole day after our meetings. Her name is Attorious and she's beautifully blunt, and exuberant, and wonderful. I loved having her with us for 6 hours- she really is the life of any metaphorical party (b/c she is my nonsocial twin. holla) We had a lot of good lessons with less actives, and with her as well. We really got to sit down with her and get to know her and just love her. She's so amazing, especially with the cards shes been dealt in life- man, she gives me so much vigor to strengthen my faith to be like hers! (did that even make sense? no? oh well, moving on!)

Wednesday we talked with some kids on the way to an apt. They were super nice and awesome and we basically taught them the Restoration while they were playing. They understood it really well and both took Book of Mormons. Planting seeds people!

Thursday was hilariously frustrating. We had an apt with a woman named Nancy who is SO solid at 4. But she didn't come to the door. So we thought, oh maybe shes not home. So we go to leave and the Spirit tells us to look for her car. We honed our stalkers skillz and found it waaaaay in the back of the lot, not in her usual spot. And we're like C'MON Nancy! So then we go and try her front door, and her keys are hanging from the lock...so clearly she's home. But she still wont answer... we think maybe shes walking her dog at this point. We said a prayer and then started walking trying to find her. We get the feeling to go towards the main road, a lo and flippin behold she drives past us in her car.  But prayers answered, we were led to her and found her...just as she was leaving us to drown in our frustration. So we get in our car and leave to go to another apt. ON THE WAY we drive past a park. And what do we see? Her. And her dog. Walking. In the park. Now at this moment we're debating if its too creeper stalkerish to go to her and stop her, but we just say yolo and went haha. AS WE WERE PARKING she put her dog in the car and drove offffffffffffffffffffffghljlkvhsdfgkjspdgf. *sigh* She drove 5 minutes to walk her dog for 2 minutes at a park in the cold?!?!?!   But whatever. I'm over it. Truly. It's no big deal. *facepalms* 

Moving on because my blood pressure needs to settle ;)

Saturday we were trying a less active the ward council told us to go see, and on the way there there's 3 kids riding hover-boards. So we stop and talk with them and they're all super chill and they're like "cmon you can try!" And i very politely and cooly declined becuz i would probably fall on my face and break something, or I'd fall in general and that's not ok to do in a skirt so nope. But they were awesome and it turns out that Harley just moved here from IL and he used to have missionaries all the time in his house there! So we got his number and address and all that and we have a return apt with him soon, and the others we gave Books of Mormon too and they were pretty pumped for it. I love kids!!!

This morning we went to Long Branch Beach and watched the sunrise. It was beautiful and it was freezing. Like 13 degrees with the windchill, but so worth it!

I love you all lots! Time is flying so fast, I can't believe it. I've already been in Eatontown a month! Crazy crazy. I wouldn't trade this experience for anything in the world. Weeelll, maybe punching T....actually no. Not even that hahaha ;)

Love you all!

Stay Warm!

Stay Jersey Strong.

Sister McAllister

 twinning with her old companion

 sunrise at the shore

I'm Super Keen for 2016 *drops mic and walks away*....January 4, 2016

It's 2016.

And while 2015 had a nice sheen.

Now its on to bigger and better things-

It'll be exciting to see what this year bring!.

High School for some,

And a Graduation to come.

Fires and guns,

And people named Tyler to shun!

Beautiful dogs named Duke,

And a rabbit to nuke;

Boys to ward away

With a shotgun each day,

And the celebration of birthdays!

(mines in 49 days *wink wink cough cough*)

So 2016 will be a stinkin amazing year,

So grab your tissues for some happy tears! :)

Whew. I have so little time to write this week, but I figured y'all would love a little 5 minute rhyme that you can't even call a poem cuz its so terrible haha! But enjoy it. Love it. Frame it if you want... Ahem. Anywaaaaays:

Hello hello hello!  Its the First letter from 2016!!!!!!!!  Some things to address first---

Thanks for handing out my letters!  ALSO: will you tell Sister Dana Smith and Sister Terry THANK YOU THANK YOU THANKYOU for me? I just got their Christmas gifts and I am so happy and I feel so loved and I loved all the notes from everyone and the gifts from Sister Terry are sublime! :)

Whoa! KK actually shot a gun?!?! This is a monumental occasion that should be celebrated with much acclaim and pomp! Wheres the confetti? The 3 story cake? The wild bears dancing?? hahaha thats awesome!!! Good job KK! Isnt shooting the best? 

Tell kenzie hi for me! Also, give her the little sister smack down/scare tactics we've practiced Jenna and KK. It's finally time to use them! >:)

Onto other general things which I have the next 15 minutes to write so I apologize quite profusely if I make no sense or if my letters look like Tys with my grammar and spelling errors...oh wait. I dont think mine would ever get quite as bad... hahah ;)

It is finally getting cold here! AND I LOVE IT! Oh gosh. I've had to actually wear my winter coat and my hats and tights and scarves out here!!!! I'm so happy :D  Still no snow, but they say to be expecting it soon, so we'll see. I do have to say though, that it is a different cold than CO. It's cold AND damp here haha, the humidity is still insane even though its winter.

Me and Sister Kafu probly get along too well lol! Idk if its just because I'm coming from those 11 weeks and its just a huge relief or what,  becuz if we were like at home idk if I ever would have talked to her- her Tongan-ness and Sacramento ghettoness scares me lol! But its all good. She's stinkin awesome and I'm learning a LOT from her. One of the perks of sending someone home.

Lessseee.... I LOVE EATONTOWN WITH MY WHOLE HEART! My freaky memorization skillz are coming into play and im learning and getting to know and love everyone out here so much! It is a huge adjustment coming from an area where there is 1 set of missionaries in a ward to here where theres 3, but I love it! Our Elders are really cool :)

So, I'm basically a Less Active missionary I believe. haha, that seems to be all I work with. When I got to this area literally none of the less actives were being visited in our area, or really even talked to- but now we're seeing 4 or 5 a week! Theyre such amazing people. And its really cool to see how each of them still have a testimony its just lost beneath the ways of the world and you gotta dig it out :)

New Years Eve we got to go with a member in our ward to dinner! He invited the 5 sets of missionaries in our area and we all went and ate some fantastic food! We had calamari and shrimp and sushi and then I had chicken fajitas for my entree. Ah man, I was so full i didnt eat breakfast the next day lol!

Church was great and also super hilarious! It starts now at 11, so WC starts at 9:30 now-- for which I am forever grateful cuz the past few weeks we've started at 9 w/ WC at 7:30. Yikes!  But anyways, ppl got up and bore their testimonies and I was cracking up the whole time becuz of the ladies in our ward. One lady got up and talked about how she was soooo mad the other day and how she used her agency to be happy instead of mad at this person, regardless of what they did to her. So a really good testimony, but in the process of it all she said "You know when you get really mad, and like cartoon steam starts coming outta yer ears, and your stomachs all upset and you just feel like you really gotta poop? Well thats how mad I was."  And ooohhh gosh, hahaha I was busting up and S. Kafu was and the whole Bishopbric behind her was trying not too sooo hard they were turning red!!! Ah man. And then another lady got up and bore her testimony and said that word as well. LOL! It was spoken twice over the pulpit that day... oh gosh. And then the investigator we have that was in Gospel Principles with us is always super hilarious. I wish you could meet this guys!  We were talking about obedience and how we need to not lie or steal or anything like that, and as we were talking about lying and how thats a sin and not ok, he turns to the elders beside him and trys to whisper (but i can still hear him) "guys, I lied." And Elder B was like ?  and he goes "I lied to you before, we gotta talk after."  Which ok, it doesnt sound funny now that im reading what i typed, but if you knew him you'd crack up. and the way that he said it was a riot!

That's basically it for me i guess, haha we gotta run!  But thanks for your letter, I hope you get some rest soon mom, have fun at school girls, dont do drugs, just say no, and make good choices!

Love you all!

Stay Jersey Strong.

Sister McAllister

 NYE with Sister Kafu

 New Years Eve in Jersey