LIFE!!!!!! I'm going to Scotch Plains to be an STL and send Sister
Wood home. My 2nd kill here on the mission, my 3rd transfer as an STL,
and my 1st transfer in the ghetto.... IM SO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm
just slowly moving my way up haha: started in zone 1, then went
straight to the bottom at zone 8, then zone 7, and now I'll be zone 6-
better watch out!
Don't get me wrong though, I'm also super sad. I literally cried my
eyes out and was a poor, pitiful mess last night for over an hour when
I heard. I tried to pack a little, but I kept getting super hurt and
sad lol, so I had to stop. I was a blubbering mess. I love the people
here in this Ward and area so much. I feel like I'm leaving a huge
part of my heart with them. And I was just starting to be able to reap
the fruits of my labor for once in my mission, and God takes me away
again haha! I'm just glad He finally let me taste them before He took
them away this time.
We had a crazy, packed, spiritual, miraculous, fun, hilarious, awesome
week this week! SO much happened! We went on 3 exchanges, had a
baptism, and a temple trip, and we were able to find and teach and
love so many people along the way!
Sister Baine and I were only together for a grand total of 48 hours
this week. The other 120 hours were spent with other companions in
other areas. We had our first exchange on Monday night after Pday and
it ran until Tuesday night- but we ended up having to get permission
to sleep over at their apartment because they needed a lot of help and
love and talking. We slept on the floor. Then we had service Wednesday
morning, right after which we drove an hour to the coast to exchange
with our other sisters- I got to see so many of my Eatontown people
that night!!!! It was awesome! Then the next day we were together for
a couple hours (which we spent weekly planning). And then on Friday we
spent the morning at service again, and right after we exchanged
again! And on Saturday we drove allllllll the way back from the shore,
for a second time this week, and ended up spending a long time in Pep
Boys to get our car fixed. Which lead us right into Sunday- where we
were at the church from 7:45am-3pm after which we left at 3 and didn't
get back until 7:30pm from the temple open house. Whew. I'm EXHAUSTED.
This was the craziest, busiest, awesomest week of my life! It was the
biggest, bestest bang to end off on haha!
Lydia's baptism went beautifully! It was a great first one! It was
funny trying to prep for this because I feel like everyone was looking
to me on what to do because I've been here the longest- and taught
Lydia most often, but I've never planned a baptism before! I had NO
idea what to do. I was just running around like a chicken with its
head cut off: cleaning the font out of spiders and spiderwebs (of
which I still shudder at because there was a kazillion of them),
flipping out because the font takes 1hr 45min to fill, finding out the
jumpsuit closet is locked, and then opening it to find that it's all
wadded in balls of no specific order or sizing, having no baptismal
record sheet to fill out until we asked the elders for one, having no
pianist so we sang really off key and out of sync, and realizing we
never told Lydia that she should probably not talk so loud as she gets
into the font and exclaims "is the water cold!?". LOL. It was awesome.
I feel like that's how it's supposed to go though right? All the funny
antics and craziness that leads up to the awesome spiritual
experience- basically how my life goes 24/7!
Ah! And the TEMPLE! It was gorgeous. We had Alan and Amos come with us
and the Houts. Amos LOVED it! He had so many questions and you could
tell that the reverence and spirit of the temple hit him as we walked
through, whereas Alan looked more at the temporal side of it: how much
it cost, how big it was, etc. However, Alan did turn to us and say
afterwards "Why were we the only ones that came to this? Why did the
others you invited not show up?" Ha! Gotcha Alan! You can try to hide
behind your weird comments, but we really know you were touched! The
temple was just beautiful. I want to live inside the celestial room!
And the decor was wonderful, the chandeliers and sconces and floor
made me feel like I was in a colonial house. Super similar to
Independence Hall I've heard! And the outside is perfect. It's right
next to the high rises of downtown Philly! God is so good.
This week was a huge blessing for me. I've felt the Spirit so
strongly. It was a wonderful last hurrah!
Love you all!
Stay Jersey Strong.
Love, Sister McAllister
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