it's been at least a year since I've emailed you, there's no way all
that I've experienced this week happened in 7 days...
Well, to begin, Monday we played volleyball for the first time in
about 7 months for me. I was terrible haha! Oh goodness, those poor
missionaries that had to watch me play were probably scarred for life
at my antics.
And that night we had a pretty cool lesson with these 2 teens that we
saw sitting on their porch. I honestly thought they were in their 20s,
but they were 15&18 lol! But I really enjoy teaching young people
anyways, cuz then I can be myself and I don't have to act like a
little posh missionary haha
Tuesday we went on exchanges and it was sweeeeeeeeet. We had a laurel
come out and knock doors with us, and she's basically a boss haha, and
we met a new investigator! He's a Russian Jew with a ginger beard. No
joke. Doesn't it sound like the first line of a cheesy joke?? Yup. But
Simon's awesome. He actually believes in Christ because his mom is a
Russian Orthodox back in Israel, and the only thing he does that's
Jewish is keep kosher. But he said if we can make it possible to let
him have bacon, then he's down for listening hahahahaha. He's
seriously so cool. I'm so grateful we found him! Oh! And get this: he
had just moved into the apartment. That day. Miracles!!!!
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday we were caught up in our STL
duties. We have a sister thats struggling pretty bad, and her
companion is also trying to help her, and we've just been trying to
help them and love them to the best of our abilities. It's been pretty
exhausting, and it's taken up a lot of time, but it's so worth it.
We've had a lot of powwows in the past couple days, a lot of tears, a
lot of word vomit, a lot of confusion, and a lot of Spirit. It's still
bizarre to me to be in a position where I can help people. Like I've
been thinking, if I hadn't been called as an STL this transfer, I
wouldn't know ANY of the stuff I know now. I'm talking skills,
important habits, how to love and serve, how to rely on the Spirit
(cuz I have no idea what I'm doing 95% of the time), how to trust, and
how to communicate- just to name a few.
TANGENT: Did you know that communication is actually an eternal
principle? Ya, I had that revelation as we were helping the sisters.
And it's more than just praying and communicating that way, it's
communication between leaders and the people they have stewardship
over, it's communication between couples, families, friends, etc etc.
God and Jesus Christ don't just tell the prophets or anyone else to do
something and that's it, they tell them to return and report.
Communication is key in every relationship and in every facet of work.
Also, God commanded Christ to create the earth, and in every phase of
the work, Christ had to report back that He had done it. God already
knew. He knows everything, but it gave Christ responsibility for his
actions, and it created a sense of accomplishment when He could come
back and say "I did it." Yeah, when the Spirit whammed that revelation
into me I was blown away. I hate communicating haha. My opinion is
never valid, and how I feel doesn't matter, so I was kinda called to
repentance on that one. I need to communicate better lol.
Also had a pretty sketchy experience this week that involved us being
up til 2am and on the phone with one of our sisters for 1.5 hours. I
read her scriptures over the phone for 45 minutes to get the Spirit
with her, and we laughed as I basically was super sacrilegious and
debased the scriptures by reading King Noah in a sassy voice and
telling her to imagine him snapping in a Z-formation. But it's fine
cuz he's wicked, right? Haha. But ya, not a pleasant experience. Some
day youll hear stories and stuff, I have at least 4 now anyways lol!
Flip. That's a lot :/
Saturday was the worst day of my mission. Hands down. It was
soooooooooooooooo hard. It was 90 degrees and 90% humid, and we were
outside from 12-8 trying to talk to people. Every door we knocked on?
No one home. Every park we came across? No one there. Every person we
tried to stop? No time to talk. Every thing we tried- failed. And we
were sweating from the second we walked outside. And we were out for 8
hours. I really thought I was going to pass out from heat exhaustion,
but we pushed through. (Probably didn't help that all I had had to eat
that day was 4 pancakes...but in my defense, my companion doesn't like
to stop for meals.) I hear all these stories about how people knock
and talk and walk til the last minute of the night and then they find
a "golden" family that invites them right in and gets baptized 4 weeks
later. That didn't happen. Didn't even get someone to look at us
twice. But, it taught me hard work, and to not give up. Even if we had
no recognizable success and we sweat a gallon.
What a lame thing to end on. I'll tell a story so it's not so morose
as I close haha! Wednesday we helped one of our less actives Wendy
clean up her apartment a little bit. Part of that, was alcohol. So, we
took her alcohol bottles with us as we left, and we dumped em out and
threw them in the dumpster. But, outside? There was like 10 people,
and a bunch of kids....so they saw 2 missionaries carrying alcohol and
then dumping it down a storm drain and throwing the bottles away. Can
you say awkward. Man they were looking at us soooo weirdly. I think
that's the first time I've ever held a bottle of alcohol. It was just
a weird experience. And the things smelt terrible. Blech.
Random Jersey fact: the Passaic River was the site of the first
submarine ride by inventor John P. Holland.
Love you all!
Stay Jersey Strong.
Love, Sister McAllister
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