Sept 23, 2013

Hey yal,

This week has been intense.

I'm glad you get to go to the temple.... the new film is spectacular .....you will love it!! I know I do! Its really really well done and I just love it.

Glad the girls are gettin better and better at sports!!!

Man this week has been absolutely crazy!! Oh man I dunno where to start. So it might be kinda mixed up but that's OK!

So 1st off my new address is.....

2369 Wellesley St.

Palo Alto CA, 94306

I'm covering the Stanford singles wards 1st and 2nd. Its so much fun! Tuesday, 1st day in area I was at dinner with bishop and the other members of the bishopric showed up randomly and we had an awesome night and I guess they either liked me alot or wanted to put me in my place quick cause I got a call to give a 20 min talk on Sunday. So I did that yesterday and it went well. Made lots of jokes to keep the kiddos awake. Got E. Lavelua as a comp. yes another poly! and I love it so much more! The white elders are just so stiff and strict. Lavelua and I are ZLs and the zone's twice as big as my last. 27 missionaries...... like half are sisters which means tons more drama... but that's OK. We're rockin the zone! Its one of the highest work and results zones...... tons of great missionaries here. I love it! Lavelua is so fun too, man its better than Ketywan seriously. Life is great! Funniest thing.... so once I found out I was going here on the ride up, I texted Carlos Ayala (he's always wanted to go to Stanford singles ward cause that's where the girls his age are) Guess whose in Stanford and he texted back "NO WAY!" and I could just picture his voice.... it was awesome! Sooooo happy I still get to see him. Plus the guy who made those golf videos of me is also moving to Redwood City which I cover so I'll see him again too. Its sweet. Absolutely love it here. Covering the ward with 2 rockin sisters and one reminds me of Taylor cox.  Life is perfect once again haha. This is the richest area in the world. Valparaiso Ward is the richest ward in the world in the church. Oh met a guy on campus from Rampart HS.... it was pretty cool. We're teachin him more this week :) I love it! Absolutely am happy here haha.

My talk was comparing the game of volleyball to life and how we can either be on the Lord's team or Satan's or do nothing. It was a well idea talk but didn't come out the best. but I got a few compliments so hopefully it worked. Said "what the heck" over the pulpit.... that's no biggy right??? haha too funny. It was good.....really lovin it here

E. Lavelua is fantastic! Love the guy to death! better than ketywan, I think. maybe....

Life's reaylllllly good. Best area of my mission so far.

Man idk what else to say. Its just so good.

Oh so we go on Stanford alot. Man that place looks like Hogwarts and even has a "hogwarts bathroom".  Meg you should go here, you'd like it haha.

Happy anniversary Grandma and Grandpa! Hope yal are doing well :) Enjoy the family for me! and have a really good time. Love you both lots. Still remember going through the SLC temple with yal and it was such an amazing experience..... thanks for going through with me :) Means a whole lot!!

Can't wait til conference! Getta go to the temple again and hear the prophet:).... that finally sank in. We have a Prophet of God speaking to us. How privileged are we to have that..

love yal..... have a good week

-Elder McAllister

Sept 16, 2013

Hey yal!

Good to hear everything is going well. Man I heard about the rain! That's insane! 1st tons of fire then the rain belated to put it out haha but I'm glad its not a drought anymore thats for sure lol hopefully everyone is stayin dry and no leaks in the house.

Glad meg liked HC and we finally won a game..... thats insane lol never done before.

Yeah I got the pictures..... holy snap meg and Jenna could be twins. Its ridiculous how big Jenna's gotten. Slow down sis! got back to 12 lol.
 

So this week was insane. Went by so fast! Incredibly fast..... lightning quick. Ridiculous how time flies out here. Yes I'm getting transferred but I'm at peace with it. I'm gonna miss alotta the people here. So many friends that I see as family, but the best experience of all was Saturday. President allowed us to go to the temple with Carlos for the 1st time! Oh man it was an amazing experience. Best day of my mission by far. We talked and talked and talked and talked and the spirit was there the whole time. Our eyes weren't dry the whole time. It was so special. Man I love that guy. Harder to say goodbye to him and I've only known him 7 months than sayin goodbye to most of my life long friends back home. It's crazy. I really feel I've learned at least a piece of how much Heavenly Father loves his children. He wrote in my journal and I lost it. You'd think I was a 4 yr old girl that got her lollipop takin away. It still is gut wrenching but the last thing we said to each other was see you at each other's weddings! So I'm lookin forward to that now for 2 reasons!!
 

Other than that, I've just been sayin goodbyes and packin my things. I'm gone on Tuesday. Who knows where the Lord will take me. I just hope its someone a little more easy going that E. Barber. I have been struggling the whole time with him. I feel I need to be 100% perfect or I get hugely judged and ugh its so stressful. My face is like the Himalayas too. But I give credit.... he's been doing this alot longer so maybe thats how I'm supposed to be but I just feel super inadequate and ready to ask pres to drop me to a reg missionary. But I keep getting back to "this is where the Lord wants you" so I stay lol. Its probably me and my personality that is just not meshing with his but that's ok..... different people do things different. I just wish I coulda made it work smoother. oh well.
 

Oh so funny story...... sacrament meeting yesterday. So this lady walks into the lobby during the sacrament and all the members motion for us. So we go out. and she's holding a dog... what are we supposed to do with a dog?? We teach, not play fetch lol. so she's freaking out about how to get help for this dog and then says she cant hold it anymore and like throws it at me. So there I am halfway through sacrament and holding a dog... and then she wants to go outside to call because she doesn't want to ruin any ones sacrament experience(apparently ours wasn't important lol) and so shes callin like 15 numbers and were just standing outside for like a half hour and while shes doing that I'm tryin to sell the dog to members walkin around haha! but it didn't work and finally I'm just like ok who cares and let it go and told her it'd be fine and she freaked out again but after a few minutes decided it was best. Then we finally sit back down and a few members come up to us and question us where we got this dog and why he's by the church and this and that and its like holy cow its just a dog. Let him be..... his owner will probably come lookin for him and then they left lol finally.... never an ordinary sacrament meeting in Santa Clara that's for sure lol.

But I'm getting transferred. We'll see where I go. I'm excited mostly. kinda burnt out right now though from all the stress. I'd love a good just 1-2 days of rest.... that'll get me goin at 100% again. Doubtful but hey I can dream haha! Loved the temple and the new film is extraordinary. You will have to go soon! I loved every second of it!

Love you guys...... do good on your games and homework and of course live it up! Have fun ...you only go through HS once. Enjoy the ride now rather than look back at it. :) Have a good week!

Oh and just sent a missionary outta Santa Clara to Colo Springs mission. Geo TKach. maybe he will get called to your area.

-Elder McAllister

Sept 10, 2013

Hey sorry gonna be short.... long and crazy day as a ZL and just had like 10 min to shoot a quick email to yal and Mel.... so sorry for it ahead of time

The suit is a audible. Pres asked me about a suit cause he saw the condition of mine and told me he had a better deal than Men's Wearhouse, so he sold me a brooks brothers suit for 200. Way nicer than a men's wearhouse. so I'll just need the money to pay him back. It's untouched so I can go to a brooks bros and get it exchanged for anything in the line up. :) He's such a loving guy! He's great!!

Saying goodbyes is so hard.... specially after 8 months in a great ward, but it's died off a bit when Ketywan left. Barber is just so serious all the time and stiff. It's hard cause he doesn't laugh at anything really and just stays quiet so it's awkward after I say something usually 99% of the time lol but I just cope and hope for the best. He is a spiritual giant which I love, just different personalities I guess.

We have 2 big things going on right now! Carlos Ayala who kety and me activated and ordained to Melchizedek priesthood and his son to Aaronic and then talked him into a camero lol and now he's going to the temple this week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I pray so hard that president will let us go to get his endowments with him. He wants me to be his escort! So exciting!!!!! I'm just waiting now for pres to call and give us the green light. So cool! Then number 2... we got 2 new baptismal dates. The Rezendes..... they're Brazilian though and totally want the gospel.  It's just hard to teach so luckily we have a lot of Portuguese speaking members to help us out, but they are such a loving family and are just great!!!!!

Send me a picture of Jenna blocking..... that I wanna see!! my sisters are excellent athletes. Be aggressive to be aggressive......both of you. You're stronger than any of the girls out there... just run em over and get in there face! haha

I'm most likely transferred the 17th, so don't send anything :)

Barber's good..... total spiritual giant. Just really doesn't seem to like me. He's super stiff.... makes it hard sometimes. Actually a lot of times lol ....in lessons and with others just great cause I can chat with others but by ourselves.... just awkward all the time.... oh well.

Life's good. Can't wait to get the new suit fitted and the right style picked out :) I'll be looking great! Hopefully it lasts for like 5 years.

It's hot here but not too bad. Got a Mexican tan and a redneck neck haha but life's good.

Loving my mission and man its flying by. I'm trying to live in the moment and seems I'm just watching em fly out the window as I'm tryin to grab hold of em.

love yal gotta go!

-Elder McAllister

September 3, 2013

Hey yal!
 

So good to hear how everything's going!

Good luck to Jenna and Megan! yal will do great!!

Kayla I bet mom didn't write on here how many push ups you did because it was more than she could do and she didn't want me to know my sister could beat my mom in push ups! haha!!

Duke's getting grey? That pooch better stay livin til I get home! I miss him alot!

I saw the other email and was so confused. Hope you didn't start cryin cause you didn't get it off in time. Labor day, so the library was closed....haha!!

So not much this week.  The mission is good. Met with the stake president and mission president and we were talking about the zone and how to improve and what's going on and all that and I sat back for a second and thought man what other 20 yr olds are meeting with such high officials in business or outside the church..... it's crazy! I was real privileged especially with the trust and confidence they had in us as those lil 20 yr olds.... haha It was a cool experience.
 

So the week was long, but good. The mission's shooting for a 101 baptisms this month. 2 months ago was 17ish then Aug was 45 and now we're going for triple digits!!! How exciting!!! haha for California..... in Brazil and down in S America they baptize that many a day lol.

E. Barber's a great guy..... love the time I'm spending with him. And the zone is really looking up. The Rezende family came to church for the 1st time and it was perfect because a bishopric member and wife both speak Portuguese and so they hit it off like the kids at McDonald's! We're planning a trip to the temple Sunday. Plus Carlos Ayala, the coolest member here, is finishing up temple prep tomorrow and wants us to come to the temple with him for the 1st time! Hope pres lets us!
 

Life's good. Haven't found a good suit yet. I know what I want and so I'll be patient until I can find it :)

Love yal!