week. I am so sorry in advance for my long-windedness and for boring
you all to tears with my life story...but these last weeks in the
transfer are PSYCHO!
Ok ok, first off, I am now basically fluent in Spanish. Sé que estas
cosas son verdaderas. Entiendes? Bueno. Moving on. Hahahaha I had the
awesome privilege of going on not 1, but 2 Spanish exchanges this last
week! It was a blast! I got fed breakfast lunch and dinner on the 2nd
one, and on the first we had the joy of figuring out the public
transport system here in NJ. The Hermanas' car was in the shop all
week, so we had to walk everywhere. We ended up taking a bus to
Princeton and then walking all around there contacting and teaching,
and then taking a bus back that night. We met some interesting people
on the bus, one obsessed with Pokemon (about 40 years old) and the
others were just awkward haha (not that that one wasn't...). We spent
$15 bucks and 2hours for the bus that day- you could say I'm not a big
fan. But it did give me a chance to get to know Hermana Virgin better!
She's awesome! Hails from Alis Viejo in Cali, and did water polo at
BYU. She also is Rapunzel personified because her hair is soooooooo
long! Oh and pretty cool story there, we were about to teach the
English class that they have every week at the library, and we stopped
and started talking with a lady about her kids. Now, for some reason I
can follow a convo in Spanish pretty well, have no idea how to say
anything, but I can understand. Well, this lady was talking and
talking and then turned to me and asked if I knew any Spanish, and I
said nope, only English here! And to make a story short, we got her to
come to our English class and the Hermanas now have all her
information and she's super sweet! Miracles!
On my 2nd exchange I got to teach another English class with Hermana
Millington to a lot of people in Lakewood. They were all so funny! And
they enjoyed making fun of me as I sat there pretty oblivious to what
they were saying about me haha. One thing about Lakewood- it's chuck
FULL of Hasidic Jews. I'm talking ear curls, top hats, tassels,
beards, glasses, yamekahs, skirts, headwraps, and everything else
EVERYWHERE! Literally driving down the street you see at least one per
block walking, biking, playing, etc. kinda crazy!
Oh and this week were going on a whopping 3 exchanges because all our
district leaders want us to go with some of their sisters again. Yup.
3 exchanges. In 6 days. With a baptism to plan. And a temple trip to
Philly to coordinate. And last week of the transfer stuff to do.
Hahahahaha...ha....ha....aaaaahhhhhhhh. I'm gonna die!
So right now our teaching pool contains 2 atheists, 3 Hindus, a
Ghanian in the Army, a Jamaican family, and our YW President's
daughter. Yikes haha. Sounds pretty crazy. But the cool thing is: one
of the atheists has prayed twice since we started teaching him (he's
the boyfriend of a less active) and those are the only 2 prayers he's
said in his life, the other atheist is coming with us to the Philly
temple on Sunday and has started to understand faith more, the 3
Hindus are coming to believe in Jesus Christ and they are reading the
Book of Mormon and the Spirit is uber strong while we teach them, the
Ghanian is also coming to the temple and he's starting to understand
why he needs to be baptized with the proper priesthood authority, the
Jamaican family is learning how this can bless each of them and their
family relationships, and the YW President's daughter is getting
baptized on Sunday!!!!! OH! And add in there an Italian who just moved
here after being in an LDS host family in AZ for a year and he wants
to know more about the church and who these awesome people are!!! Wow!
This area is starting to look up and I feel SO blessed being able to
see the difference from when I first got here to now. The Lord is
blessing us so much! I'm actually hoping for the first time in this
area that I stay another transfer. I don't want to leave yet! I'm just
starting to make lasting friendships with the members/investigators
and I just want to stay here 6 more weeks! Gah. I bet He'll move me
just because He can hahahahaha, nah, but I bet it'll be a repeat of
Eatontown where I left way before I wanted to.
Thursday we had a super spiritual Zone Conferece. And I got to see all
my buddies again! I've made so many friends with the Elders out here,
it's been awesome. And some of these sisters I'm gonna be friends with
until we're old and senile on rocking chairs on our porches yelling at
each other about "eating hamburgers" ("did you say there's a
burglar?!?") lol, it'll be great. I'm so glad I came to Jersey. I love
it out here. Despite the constant 95% humidity and 90 degree weather,
the mosquito bites all over my legs, never going in grass because
you're scared you'll die from a tick, being drenched in a downpour
every other day, people crossing to the other side of the street to
avoid walking past the two girls in skirts, slammed doors and locked
gates, the New York mentality, needing accent translators when talking
to people, and always having to drive in the right lane of the road
because you never know when a left turn is really a jughandle... It's
been wonderful! I love love love love LOVE it here and I never want to
leave, but I ain't paying for living here cuz it costs not only your
arm and leg but also half your brain and your firstborn child. Not
about that life... Lol! I've basically turned into a Jersey Girl and
it's great.
Oh, and shout out to all my old companions because I love them lots
and they're all super great and fantastic and I wouldn't be who I am
today without them! I love yous!!!
Stay Jersey Strong.
Love, Sister McAllister
Food Pantry service
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