Bowling for Temples Whilst Eating Chick-Fil-A in Princeton....March 21, 2016

Oh my goodness, I have no idea where to start with my week! It's been crazy, it's been long, it's been an absolute blast, and it's been sad, it's been hectic, it's been amazing, and I never wanted this week to end. But it has. Sooooo now all of you get to hear about it! Haha

Monday, marks S. Brown's 2nd to last Pday (I can feel her glare right now as I'm typing this, but she can get over being the first thing in my email lol) and we had lots of fun bowling as sisters! The 6 of us went for a couple hours and just went crazy as usual haha, we had too much fun! We spammed each other's iPads with selfies and super awko pics (in other words, we have lots of blackmail for each other haha) and were total dweebs as we bowled #GrannyShot.   S. Browns pretty much the best thing since sliced bread. I can safely say I have very few friends in this world, but she's definitely one of the best. I've said it before, but if I had served my whole mission, only to gain her friendship, it would have been worth it. All the pain and struggle and tears and heartache would be totally and completely worth her friendship. I've truly found my Poly half <3

Tuesday was a STINKIN FANTASTIC DAY. We went to the temple!!!!!!!!! Ahhhhhh I missed it sooooooooooo much! It was a breathe of fresh air after 3 months of stale, polluted grossness that is called The World. It was so quiet, peaceful, mind blowing, beautiful, spiritual, and a much needed rest for 3 hrs. I LOVE the temple. I want to go there everyday of my life! *sigh* If only...
But yeah, we got to ride the train into NYC from Newark, then hop on the subway, and then boom- there's the temple! And I had my lamb gyro from the street vendor by the temple that I've been craving for the past 3 months, so that was a big bonus too :)

Wednesday we had District Meeting down in Toms River, as well as S. Brown's Hot Seat where she gets to tell us all the good stories from her mish. Then we drove the 45min back to our area and had a lesson with Beloné! Idk if I've mentioned him before, but he's an insanely sweet Haitian man who just absorbs everything we say. He would fit right in at the church, whenever he comes. Oh! Just thought, he's the husband of the lady who let us into her house while fighting with the superintendent who was telling us to stop knocking doors! Haha that'll probly clear it up a bit :) but ya, he's great.
Then we had dinner at....CHICK-FIL-A that night!!!!!! There only like 4 or 5 in the whole stinkin state of NJ! Can you believe that heresy!?!? Tis a crime to humanity. So I had Chick-fil-a for the first time in about 6 months, and it was beautiful. But not as beautifully awesome as the member that took us, Sister Bruchez. She and her family are one of my favorite people out here on the mission. She's so kind, and so loving. I just adore talking to her! And she's sooooo nice! She knew transfers were coming up so she got us little gifts- an angel that says "faith will carry you through". :)

Thursday we Transfer Apartment Cleaned (or TACed) for 3 hours. And lemme tell ya, our apartment definitely needed it.... You'll be surprised to hear Mother, I'm sure, that I am actually the "clean" sister in my past 3 companionships. I take out the trash and clean up the kitchen and sweep the floor and clean up messes etc etc etc, becuz my comps tend to just leave the mess behind and that's gross to me lol. But yes, a missions has changed me Mom! Aren't you proud??
Oh! And then since it was St. Pattys Day, we had corned beef and cabbage at Sister Tyler's house! It was really really really good! Corned beef might be like, my fave thing now. AND, I had a DRAGONFRUIT! Yup. Dragonfruit. It was interesting, and didn't really taste like much, so it wasn't too fun to eat, but now I can say I've had it! Haha

Friday was supposed to be a day of service for us, but then S. Bulson got called at 10:20 the night before to become a trainer. So she had to go to the meeting in Morristown on Fri. So I spent the day in Princeton with S. Clarke and Hna Nielson! We had tons of fun, and I got to sit in a Corvette, eat at the Cracker Barrel, paint an office, try to understand Spanish, and see the Princeton campus that day! Princeton looks like Hogwarts!!!! No joke! It's soooooooo cool!
Then we had dinner that night at the Conner's house. They're the sweetest couple, and we got to wear some pretty cool aprons as we ate too! Haha, it was fun

Saturday I had my last coordination meeting with Br. Murch. And my last apt with S. Woods, and my last apt with Carmel, and my last team up with Desiree, and my last Saturday in Eatontown- tho I didn't know it at the time. But it was a great end to my time here. Sunday was a fantastic day where I got to speak in Sacrament Meeting, and we had a Linger Longer after church. So I got a lot of pictures with my favorite people who were there. We talked and laughed and basically had a blast for an hour, including with Elders Clark and Oakley. Then that night we had dinner with the Swindlers and I got to see Attorious one more time!!! Man, I love that family.

So yes, as you might have already guessed, I'm being transferred tomorrow. I'm going to Plainsboro with a Sister Charles. Some things I know about the area: I will be living in the infamous "shoebox" of the mission, we will live in the basement/garage of a members house, I will be in the Princeton 2nd ward, I will be 20 minutes from Princeton campus, Elder Holmes will be my Zone Leader if he's still there, they are currently- as always with me- in the finding stage of missionary work with hardly any investigators, and it's not Eatontown. Man. 2 transfers was too short in this area of mine...I absolutely adore this place and the people in a way that Emerson could never touch. I spent half the time here, but I have 20000x the love for everything. Which is probly why I'm leaving, can't have what you love on the mission haha

My new address will be: 118 Springcrest Dr, Hightstown, NJ 08520

Random Jersey fact: Jersey has more race horses than Kentucky.

Love you all!

Stay Jersey Strong!

Love, 

Sister McAllister

 

 NYC...her zone

 her district

 Princeton for the day

 Temple

 opened her call one year ago on St. Patrick's Day

 Princeton and owner of Corvette

 

Lighthouses, Exchanges, Investigators, and much much more!.....March 14, 2016

Holy moly it has been a CRAZY week. So much has happened I don't even
know if I can get it all out today haha, but I'll try my best, becuz
believe it or not this weeks even crazier!

Soooo last Monday we went to Sandy Hook again, except this time we
actually had time to tour the lighthouse and walk around all the
batteries and beaches. It was beautiful weather too- 50s!!! And we had
the best people to go with- E. Clark and E. Oakley. I swear, these are
my 2 favorite elders out here haha, we've spent so much time with
them! It was a fun day, we ran around like kids as we explored the
abandoned batteries and forts, the shore with the horseshoe crabs, and
the oldest lighthouse continuously working in the nation! We did
cartwheels down the shore, saw the NY skyline from a distance, saw a
small aircraft carrier docked by the base, and basically just had the
best day ever. Man it was great. And I got a lot of pics too, so sorry
if I inundate you all with them- I think they're pretty great :)

On Tuesday we had a great District Meeting, and then went knocking for
6 hours as usual on Tuesdays haha. This time we found 2 new
investigators and had some pretty cool contacts with people! We met a
woman named Ferliene who is originally from Haiti. She says that she
is Catholic, but not very ecstatic about her church. She just wants to
know which church is true because there are so many of them. We had
planned on just showing her a video, but she invited us right in and
we were able to teach her the entire Restoration and leave her with a
Book of Mormon! She loved it and said she wants to come to church with
her kids when she's off work on the 20th! She was so kind. I can't
wait to teach her again on Wednesday.
Then we were in the courtyard of the complex and a girl was riding her
bike. Well shoot, she was the nicest little girl I've ever met! She
immediately just started talking to us and complimenting us and we had
this cute little convo with her, and then she invited her 2 friends
over to talk to us too! So we shared the He Lives video with them and
they all loved it! We gave them cards with our number on it so they
could give it to their parents and have them call us. Don't know if
it'll happen, but the kids at least we're super excited! They wanted
to share it with all their friends.

Wednesday we had a great lesson with our progressing investigator
Beloné. We went in to teach him the rest of the Plan of Salvation, but
instead we talked all about baptism and the importance of turning our
hearts to God. It was a solid lesson with scriptures and the Spirit,
and his many questions, and I felt inspired to finally invite him to
be baptized. The Spirit was SO strong when I asked him, I was given
everything to say exactly how it should be said and I honestly don't
even remember what I told him then, but it was straight from God. He
declined, and said he needs to know more and needs to come to our
church first, so we'll keep working with him on it. But really, as far
as my first ever solid baptismal invite goes, it was great! Sheesh,
I'm gonna go out asking everyone to get baptized now! I've just never
been given the chance to before...or I guess I've never taken it. Lol

Friday we had exchanges!!! I went down to Toms River with Sister
McConkie while Sister Bulson and Brown came up here. It was a great
day. Oh gosh I love Sister McConkie. She's so solid! She taught me so
much about myself and the mission and life in general, and she's
basically a BOSS and she doesn't even realize it... I'm seriously so
grateful for her. She helped me in ways she doesn't even know and in a
way that would take me like an hour to type out. It was truly special.
We were then able to exchange back on Saturday, but we all 4 went up
to Hillside to see Br. Acampora and his Magical Hands. Ahhhhhhh, my
neck feels so much better! The chiropractor is life. For realz. We had
Taylor ham bagels on the way back down, and then we split off. Upon
splitting, I realized that 1. Sister Brown is a straight up boss at
life (well, not so much realize, as reaffirm). She literally found 4
new investigators, and got a LA I've been working with for 3 months
now to finally start her family history so she can go to the
temple....all within like 6 hrs. Man, I wanna be like her when I grow
up. And 2. I realized that this is Sister Brown's last week here in
the mission... That's pretty sad haha. All my friends are old and
dying! Whyyyy must I be so young? Lol, but yeah. So I'm gonna be
trying to spend every waking moment with her this week! Gotta get my
Momma Time before she leaves me to fend for myself #Rude

Oh oh oh oh oh OH!!!!!!! GUESS WHAT?!?!?! IM GOING TO THE TEMPLE
TOMORROW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THIS IS THE BEST DAY OF MY
LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIFE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Cmsksockdjsiaowle,dmcjsosowpeodlckcjsjsjfhfhhdisowkejdxksocifjfhrhrndjchvhfudjsjdjcFJDIDKCNSHAUSIEKFMCJSKSOEIFJCHCNDGOGHDYRHJKSOCJDN
The Mission did a challenge this past month where you had to do
certain things each day for the months period and then you'd get a
prize. Well, our zone did it! We came to the challenge, we accepted
the challenge, and we conquered the challenge- and now we goin to New
York!!!!!! Ah I'm so excited. And I love our zone and we get to spend
alllllllll day with them tomorrow, and we're driving up the Sandy Hook
elders to Newark so that'll be a crazy hour car ride too LOL.  So be
prepared for SO many stinkin pics next week!
Oh. And we're going bowling today with the sisters in Toms River, so
there's even more pics hahahaha oh gosh, I'm so excited 😄

But anyways, back to the past week haha- we were able to find (drum
roll please)------------------- 9 NEW INVESTIGATORS! *faints*
                 Oh, hi. Yes, I am still alive. Sorry. Just passed out
from shock there haha. 9! New! People! To! Teach! The! Gospel! To! Yes
yes yes yes yes yes YES. Oh my gosh, God is good all the time. And all
the time, God is good. He's just been blessing us out the wazoo this
past week and it's just been bizarrely crazy to see it unfold. We
literally do basically nothing, and they just fall into our hands...
So now we gotta a lotta responsibility in teaching these people haha.
Bring it on! I've got my game face on! Whew. Whoever is trained here
next transfer is gonna have the Promised Land as their training
grounds! I woulda done anything to be born into an area that's bumpin
like this! Haha

Ok, so I could totally keep writing for DAYZ here, but looking at this
small novella I just wrote, I think I'm gonna close now haha. One day
you'll here the rest of the stories from this week- they're kinda
endless haha :)

Random New Jersey fact of the week: Jersey is a peninsula.

Stay Jersey Strong.
Love, Sister McAllister

You can see NYC in the background

I Gots Da Sickies...March 7, 2016

HOLA!

Sooooo I've been sick the past 3 weeks, and me being me, I was all "rub some dirt in it, keep going, it's just a flesh wound" type of thing. Well, it got progressively worse and worse and my health was just slowly declining. S. Bulson made me call the mission nurse and Doctor to see if they could help me- but they're thinking its stress and still haven't gotten back to me about anything. So we started asking everyone in the ward cuz basically all of them are nurses or medical field of some sort- and nobody knew! On Friday I had basically gone over 48 hours without sleep, had had headaches and migraines everyday for the past 3 weeks, and was absolutely starving and nauseous, at the same time, 24/7. Oh! And we're pretty sure I had a fever cuz I was freezing all the time (and I'm never cold, but S. Bulson always is, but she wasn't cold when I was) and my face was bright red. So it's been super fun this past week as I've tried real hard not to stop working cuz I feel guilty when I do. Ive tried to sleep and take naps multiple times throughout the week, but I can never fall asleep. I gave up on sleep a while ago- now I'm just trucking along with my Diet Cokes and bleary eyes (very healthy, promise). Anyways, I asked the Elders for a blessing on Friday night (in other words, both S. Brown and Bulson bullied me into it), and it was beautiful. This is only the 2nd time on the mission I've had a priesthood blessing, and the first blessing I've actually received counsel and guidance from Heavenly Father. I asked Elder Oakley to anoint me and Elder Clark to bless me, and it was perfect. Elders Black and Silva also jumped in, and lemme tell you- having 4 worthy holders of the priesthood standing around you with their hands on your head calling upon the powers of Heaven is an incredible feeling. It was just what I needed and the Spirit was SO powerful in that room. The priesthood is such a wonderful gift. God has truly given us the privilege of seeing the fruits of it, and the men bearing the power of it. (Interesting side tangent: when reading my patriarchal blessing, I've taken to defining words in it. I already know their meaning, but the actual dictionary definition is pretty awesome. For instance, privilege- something regarded as a rare opportunity and bringing particular pleasure.) But ya, so I basically cried that entire night and I was a serious mess when the blessing was over, and those poor elders had to see me with a puffy red face and smeared tears and snot everywhere haha! That's ok, what are friends for, right? Also, another side note, it was suuuuuuuuuuuuper weird to hear my first name in the blessing. But also really nice, because having not heard it for 8 months now made it stand out as a rare and wonderful occurrence. It also made me feel super loved and like an individual and like God knows ME. Because I already know of at least one other "Sister McAllister" out there right now ;)
But have no fear family and friends! My health is on the rise! I was blessed that the sickness would be taken from me, and that all my "trials, sufferings, afflictions, and sicknesses" are to "build [my] testimony and strengthen my faith in Jesus Christ". I'm on the mend! My headaches and fever went away that night, and now I'm just working on my sleeplessness and nausea- which are decreasing by the day! So no worries, all is good in the hood of Neptune ;)

Something I think that is super interesting, and this goes along with the previous monologue, is that it's often our "worst" weeks that are our best weeks. Sister Bulson and I feel like we just got nothing done this week because we stayed inside a bit while I tried to figure my life out. It felt like we hadn't seen anyone and that we hadn't done a lick of good all week. But looking at our numbers (which is in no way a reflection of anything, but it was nice) we had come close to and surpassed all our goals for the week! And we had even had one investigator at church yesterday! I've never had an investigator in this area at church before!!! And the lessons we had with people went really well, and things are just looking up in our area. I often think it interesting that this applies to life in general as well. We always think things are terrible, doom and gloom, and not what we had hoped they would be- but then we realize, life is full of miracles! Tender mercies! Stop-and-smell-the-roses moments! Blessings beyond measure! Life is so good!!!    Here's the secret to recognizing it: "love life, and see good days..." (1 Peter 3:10) Love it! And you'll see the goodness in it :)

Anyways haha, enough verbal vomit. On with the week!
Friday we also had a funeral service for one of the members here (yes, that is 3 now to pass this month) and I gave a talk about the "hope of the Atonement and the Resurrection of Jesus Christ". (I'll attach a copy on the email) And Bishop Lindeman said it was super good so he asked me to email him a copy, and then he brought it up in sacrament meeting today over the pulpit, and then he sought me out at the baptism yesterday to tell me that "the Spirit told him the ward needs to hear it, especially at this time of year, and especially after all the wards gone through last month"....so I'm giving it on March 20th as well. Smh. Why am I always asked to speeeeeeaaaaaaaaaak??? Why is it always meeeeeeeeee? Stake conference, seminary graduation, like every other Sunday in CO, etc etc. *sigh* All I know is that I guess I'm bizarrely grateful that I have talked so much at church, cuz otherwise I'd be scared to death on my mission haha! So tender mercies and different perspective wins again

Ok last side tangent....for now..... No promises lol!
Can I just say how much I love our elders? They're my favorite 4! We see them basically 4/7 days in the week at least, and spend a good length of time with them each time, and I just love them. They're SO stinkin hilarious, I'm busting up every other second with the lot of them! Ah gosh. And today we're gonna go with them to the Sandy Hook lighthouse and just hang out all day- it'll be great. I'm excited :)

Here, to help y'all visualize/ get my love- a synopsis of the Eatontown Elders:
E. Clark- my little ginger brother I never knew I had, and we rolling in the inside jokes
E. Oakley- my British, hipster, rebellious friend who always makes me laugh
E. Black- adorable little bunny rabbit who is like 6' tall, super sweet
E. Silva- in his own world and dimension and category of who knows what, and it's hilarious
Yeah, it's a crack up here in Eatontown. Cuz then you have the inherently awkward Sister Bulson who also happens to have Tourette's. And then me... This poor ward. Hahahaha

So thats my week. Hope y'all enjoy and all that jazz! Love you all!!!

Go forth and slay the week, so the speak! :)

Stay Jersey Strong.

Love,

Sister McAllister

 

 She wants this plant.....haha

 Spring is coming

 doodles (oh how I love her doodles)

 food pantry is good

 what happens after nightly planning