August 18, 2014...the last email!

MOM NOTE:  This is his last email....his last Pday...his last few days in California.  He has loved it and as you can read from all his letters, this experience has changed him. He is a stronger, more spiritual, mature young man...not that unsure boy that we sent out into the mission field.  He will never be the same again....and that is awesome.  I will make one more post on this blog...his homecoming!  And then it is over.....2 years of wonderful letters and happiness.  But onward and upward and progressing in other areas of his life. I sure love this man!

 

 

Hey yal,

 

Man this has been the most insane week. not what I expected....

 

Santa Cruz was a blast as always

 

Lost a dog...... found it the next day a few miles away from home.... not good. but it turned out ok

 

Ran into a screen door at full speed.

 

Caught myself on fire.

 

 ....and had tons of meetings and goodbyes and more meetings to take up all of my time haha this was a crazy week.... the outgoing fireside last night was amazing though.. loved every second of it.... the most the building has ever been packed. It was so cool and at the end..... us going home stood up for the Spirit of God as the closing song and after a verse everyone in the building was singin as strong as they could..... it was THE best crowning moment for my mission. AH! I wish someone recorded it cause it was bomb.

 

Can't believe its over. Still hasn't hit yet. I still am gonna be attending the Moorpark ward Sunday hahaha in my heart at least.  It was the hardest 2 years... the roughest 2 years... the most stressful 2 years... the most up and down 2 years... the most dreadful 2 years... the most joyful 2 years... the most intense 2 years... the most worthy 2 years... the most sacrificial 2 years... the most amazing 2 years... the most jaw dropping 2 years... the most sad 2 years... the most happy 2 years... the most fun 2 years... the most hilarious 2 years... and the most memorable 2 years of my life. I cant believe what has happened over the past 2 years. I cant believe some of the miracles and events that took place. I cant believe all the eternal friends I have made and man I never thought I'd say this but Cali is my home. I left everything on the field including my heart. Goodbyes are the hardest thing God created, especially when there to those you love and care for more than yourself or anything in the world. I wish that fireside went for a day cause there were so many people and I just wanted to talk to all of em for like an hour! Man I get way to attached to people.... never thought it'd hurt this much to leave a ridiculous liberal, hippie, Prius driving city... I'm like a lil girl... no I'm like a pregnant lady emotions switching 5000000 times every minute. Just cant believe the time has come. 2 years is a long time but looking back it was so fast and so quick... haha I've adapted this to everyday life. figured my whole life would be mission work. That's how my brain looked at it at least. I hate change... well people changing is good but changing physical location and that sort of stuff is a real drag. I want to feel happy and I am.... over joyous, but man this sucks. Its easily 30x harder to come home than to leave on a mission. Gonna be spending alotta time on my knees that's for sure. I'm gonna miss the constant face punch of the Spirit in everything for sure.... not gonna get that any other time in my life like I do here... it'll come at marriage and church and kiddos but definitely wont come everyday. Man this is the single most hardest thing I've done in my life. I love these people. I love these missionaries. I am so chapped I cant hang out with them next week! ahhhh I'm gonna lose my mind. They are my family. I'd do anything for them. I've tried to give my heart and my best to them for 2 years. I have no regrets, no what ifs, no man I shouldas... just don't want to go home haha.

 

Love you guys really, haha I may seem like I don't want to go but I really cant wait to see yal.

 

Best time of my life.

 

Love,

-Elder McAllister

 Outgoing Fireside

 The Yeun's

 The Ocampos

 Elder Otani leaving on his mission this week

 Burning of the tie...tradition

 L & L BBQ

August 12, 2014

Hey yal

 

Man time is just cruzin at mach 3 towards the end. Its super weird and of course everyone loves asking how it feels to be almost going home and really I can't put an answer to that..... its like a limbo feeling.... I cant believe it and I cant wait for it and I just flat out don't want it.......and I am so stoked to come home and I'm so sad to leave everyone and I'm so happy to see everyone..... and I'm stoked to get to school and I'm sad I wont be in Spiritual school...... and I'm stoked to date and I'm sad to leave all my missionary friends. I just flat out don't know how to feel. I must be broken or something.

 

Speaking of being broken..... guess who messed up their elbow! This guy! hahaha playing volleyball with polys totally went up for a spike and so did a 250LB Samoan and are forearms hit each others and I obviously lost that hahaha its not too bad though... don't worry Jenna I'll still kick your trash ;)

 

This past week went by quick. Working hard and its weird saying bye... this is a different bye than oh your getting transferred..... this is see ya.... maybe later... sucks.... really really sucks. Plus all my friends are either gonna still be in the mission or members. and the ones coming home with me are going all different directions  to get through school... man! this sucks!!! Called alot of my favorite families to come to my outgoing. Can't wait to see em!

 

The week was good. Me and Ayotte went on exchanges again which was such a relief! My patience battery is so dunfer with trippy Tripp but that's ok... 1 more week. I just feel really bad for the ward.. Its not gonna be the same kind alove or care.... but this is missionary work and that's what happens.

 

Man nothing really crazy happened this past week.... just the usual grind and work but we did get to go to Santa Cruz for the last time yesterday! Man it was soooooo fun! I love it to death! Volleyball, football, sports, smell, sand, sun...... just awesome. That I will miss almost as much as the people hahahaha we got fried like KFC chicken though. Housekeeper got it the worst, it was hilarious. We went early and came back later so it was a full day in the sun and man it was just a blast! I really love the beach.

 

Well this is my last week.... got lots of lunches and dinners all planned out. so that will be fun. Its gonna go fast... ready set go!

 

love yal

-E. McAllister

 Of course....another "toy" for this guy to pose in front of. Dream big Son!

 Chicken cooked in a clay pot....who knew 

(hmmmm, your mom knew son, it is called Pampered Chef)

 Santa Cruz for P Day

 Elder Tonga

 Goodwill trying to sell our free stuff?

 Fun times at the bus stop and on the bus

 Notice the tie to match the house....he is all American!

 And the shorts...... 

Always a VB in his arms. This elder smacked the Snapple out of his hand and it broke.

 The Ocampo Family....one of his favorites

 The sunset....I love it!

August 4, 2014

Hey yal,

 

Man sounds like an awesome awesome week. So happy for yal! Love those camping pics! My dogs still got it!! haha sounds like he grew up and fought his fears too lol. Glad schools going well and my buds are getting things dun back home. It'll be crazy to see home. 2 more Sundays.... what?!? lol thats too fast.

 

This week was bomb! really rough with Tripp this week though...don't know why it bothers me so much but he is never grateful for anything.... at all. Zero thank yous to anyone...... bugs the heck outta me especially when I help him out with $$ and he just assumes he deserves it. GAWW! Almost got to yelling at him but I kept my patience and slept it off the next few days. So I'm pretty stoked Heavenly Father has helped me lengthen my fuse hahaha it really keeps my days more up beat! but we just crammed out as much work as we could this week I was seriously fun. Afterburner time!! Misty's doing fantastic. solid! goin to the temple real soon. This girl, Katerine, is so awesome! She wants everything taught and to be baptized before I leave but her parents are like whoa whoa whoa slow down. One is a really LA and the others a NM but they are my favorite to visit. So chill and fun and we can be ourselves there. love em to death. I'll definitely be flying out here if she gets baptized. and they came to church yesterday! 1st time in like forever!!! haha it was awesome!!! And they both loved It. The NM didn't come though. haha ok funny embarrassing story. Well 2 actually. So we were talking about this bar that Cliff (NM) goes to and I was like oh the one where that Blondie drives the big ol Chevy and he's like oh yeah that's the one! And went and told the girl the Mormon missionaries have a crush on her! So now whenever we bike by( like everyday cause its on the main street) she waves and I'm like oh gosh..... hahaha so funny!! but awkward and stuff too. oh well. 2nd story is we always tell people we gotta get home before 930 or we'll turn into pumpkins and so Katerine (9) thinks that really happens!! So funny..... so we're planning a prank this week to get some pumpkins and act like we got turned into pumpkins. gonna be hilarious!!!! We'll let ya know how it goes later.

 

So I sang again.......... Jacks signed us up for it..... in front of the HP so luckily they're hearing aids were all turned down. but yupp sang again.... was not fun.. But people said it went ok. So I guess it was a success. I hate singing..... well I love it in the shower and in the car but not in front of people lol. oh well.

 

So I've gotta say the best part of my week was Saturday. oh buddy. It was fantastic. Rose came down and brought more food which was nice! Haven't had many dinners lately. And got to go to the FIRE HOUSE!!! hahah man it was such a blast! We hit it off super well.... one guy was a super less active guy and was tellin the guys all about us and we went over the whole mission thing and then me and Ayotte picked their brains over dinner man 2 hrs flew so fast hahaha loved every second of it and we were laughin and tellin stories and it was sweet. Literally the fire service is a mission but temporal not spiritual. I'm so stoked... sooooo stoked and I made good contacts there so maybe I'll get a job! who knows. It was so fun though. Loved every second of I and everything. pumped me up to get to school!

 

Ever heard the game munskins? Its a super fun game... we've been playin alot lately in the apartment. its fun, weird, and random but super addicting and fun!

 

I'll work on college stuff tomorrow because today in like 5 minutes were goin to a 4 zone sports party. Gonna be a blast!! So excited. Here comes volleyball against the polys! Gotta keep em in line!

 

Love yal so much! Talk to ya tomorrow!!

 

-E. McAllister

 making breakfast for the Zone

 ladies house they water her plants for. House for sale on 2.4 acres for only $15 mil

looks like he is watering the....water fountain?

 Firehouse.....in heaven

 Elder Ayotte too

July 28, 2014

Hey yal,

 

So college wise I've got 16 days to pay or have payment plan in place otherwise I get all my classes dropped..... so let me know what you need me to do...  I'm emailin pres today about it so I'll let you know as soon as I hear back... we gotta get goin though. Other than that, I'm so stoked!! idk if there will be a shuttle down to the airport but its only a 10 min drive. We'll see I guess. totally stoked for the cute girls! oh man so stoked!! hahaha.  Glad my campus is awesome!! Heard there's a brand new gym. cant wait!! Let me know what we wanna do for a laptop because I can get a discount here with my member and then just bring it home with me. Sanchez and House are doin that too. Figure its a good idea to get a mac from where they are made but let me know what you want to do with all that!

 

This week in comparison to last was not too exciting lol just grindin the days. Put more miles on that bike! Startin to put stuff together to send home that won't work in the suitcase. We'll see how that goes. We got to take down a fence the other day that was pretty fun to use tools and have a blast with missionaries!  Misty is doing great.....  she's getting involved in the ward and rockin it! She's hopefully goin to the temple here pretty quick! Had zone conference this week... that was pretty good! Our new Pres Mella is a cool guy. Hard because I don't have the same relationship as I did with Watkins but oh well. It was a good time, got to see all my poly brothers and sisters!! haha it was so fun! They make everything better hahahaha... havin some miracles with LA members wanting to help us! The doctrine of feeling needed and getting others to do stuff for you and feeling included. Man it is so key! and it helps them, help you, help themselves if that makes any sense! but its awesome!!!  Works all the time and its amazing to see the results! church was amazing. I love these members. I seriously feel like I'm in the ward. Well 8 months here would do that I guess but yeah I love em so much! Gonna be hard to say bye... really tough.... and to the missionaries too.... man sucks.  Its so hot lol we just get on the bikes and were already sweatin... its cool I'm just loosin that weight I put on here hahahaha.  Got called trunky for the 1st time by a member from the Chinese branch lol. I can't get my top button dun on my shirts hahaha so he took that as I was trunky... what the heck! judging... so bad.... he don't know me or how hard I've been working! Whatever hahaha its just funny to hear. God knows how I've been workin and that's all that matters!! Just thought it was pretty funny.

 

Life is good. Sucks because I feel like my life is ending but its good because I love every second of it! Ya gotta live it up! You only get one chance at a lot of things and so you gotta take the shot when its there otherwise your missin out on it all! A guy told me last week everyone dies but only a few people live. Thinkin about that I'm like.... yeah that's pretty true. alotta people just go through the motions and that's not what God wants us to do. He wants us to be happy and to stretch! to grow and to become who we wanted to be in the pre mortal life!

 

Pretty normal week all in all! Dunno whats goin on for pday today but were gonna have a blast!!!  Can you believe its almost August? I cant. I'm tryin to go backwards but then at the same time I'm racing to the 20th. idk whats going on lol I'm so broke. idk whats going on anymore. Just teachin and servin and the rest will work itself out! Hope ya have a bomb time camping without me! Hope Duke has a good time! Miss that pooch.

 

Have fun.... we'll talk to ya soon! love yal

-E. McAllister

 Car Show....it was so BOMB!

 Not sure what was happening here...maybe California Snowball fight?

 fixin the fence

July 21, 2014

hey yal,

 

I bet yal had a blast in Utah. that sounds like a ton of fun! That retreat thing sounds interesting.... Mom I've gotten to know you for like 21 years now... I feel I got a pretty good grasp of what makes you tick. haha you've been yourself in those 23 months of letters and that's what I want most. Honestly its really nice to take a breath from the whole spiritual aspect of things and hear how amazing my family is doing and all the fun they are having. That motivates me to do more because I know that our family's sacrifice of this mission is bringing in tons of blessings to our family. That's why we get to email so we know whats going on in both sides of the world right? I want you to be you because when your your best you, then you'll be happy and so will I :) and you don't have to put this paragraph in the blog ;) hahaha "Be your Best You and Rock It!"

 

This week was insane. holy craziness lol. so we'll go day by day on this one cause it was legit!

 

Monday- Me and Ayotte and Housekeeper and Doxey went up into the mountains(more like hills) and just went cruising for a little and we ended up at the Big Basin state park! such big redwoods. man it was so fun! Just a really fun time and chill. Haven't been in the woods like that in a really really long time haha but it was so fun! pictures to follow. Dinner at the Damunis, a Fijian family who are so much fun! They're straight mano'o! haha they are so fun! and me and s. Qaqa were just havin a blast with em all! Tripp and s. Bishop just like sat there.... it was really awkward... but it was legit for us! haha their loss. Found this program that in the summers some guy from Utah started a thing that kids can go to Fiji to build houses and wells and roads and cool stuff like that. so I'm basically gonna do that next summer! it'll be legit! Tila Drova and the Damunis and s. Qaqa and E. Racule all will set me up with the best out there! its nice to have friends just like you were sayin mom :) well these guys are basically family so yeah there awesome!  had a blast with em all!

 

Tuesday- service service service! did you know I was a plumber? me neither but after shelving books at the library, we helped an ol lady redo her bathroom sink and stuff. I'm pretty good at it too! Maybe I'll do that as a back up or something. but it was fun! Then we gotta do some gardening. I basically have a green hand not a green thumb haha except this bush thing we cut back had all this sap sorta stuff in it and if I jumped against a wall I'd stick to it for like an hour. haha so funny. It was pretty fun we got some brownies outta it.

 

Wednesday- bomb day for teaching people. Met with 4 of our less active families and man they are doin so good! Tila Drova just got her limited use recommend!! AHHH so cool!!! plus one of the most inactive people she has a baking business and we asked her to make some cupcakes and she made 4 dozen for free! It was sweet! LA still are willin to provide service no matter what its for ... just remember that! Had dinner at the Ocampos! They were in Lawrence station ward with me and moved to the branch here so we're in the same building and they love feeding us! and we get to have pillow fights every time with their kiddos! so much fun! and her food is so good. Best Mexican food I've ever had. ever!

 

Thursday-  Zone training! We had it at Rich Thawley's house, who'se loaded.... sold a company to Trans America and he is now a private contractor for them in doing leadership and motivational seminars and stuff... it was an awesome lesson and plus his back yard had a putting green so we had a blast on that and he pulled out his GTR which was legit... tuned it to 800HP.  man it was sleek.. had a super fun time with the zone for that though! it was legit.

 

Friday- Legit! exchanges with Ayotte and we lit up Saragota ward! it was such a blast and nice to have a break from Tripp haha it was a good reboot.

 

Saturday- Started with a cancer walk and we were havin an alright time and then the FD came!! heck yes!! haha went and chatted it up with em for the next like hour and a half. it was a blast! We were just bouncing off of everything it was good! Apparently I'm in good shape just gotta get into shape lol they said cross fit is a good workout plan  so I'll hit that up when I get home but as far as schooling and certs I'm so set. Plus I made good impressions with them and hopefully some good contacts for later on! They invited me to come to the station and to go on a ride along lol.... can I leave Tripp for that?? haha maybe not. but we're def gonna go! Then of course to end the week off.... Misty's baptism. wow so amazing! The spirit was super strong. and I even sang... what the heck! hahaha it was awesome. She was so prepared as weird as it is, she was textbook. no hick ups. no double takes  just full bore 90 mph down the road to baptism. She's solid. amazing. quiet hahaha but awesome! Really great service and everything came together. oh met a guy named Tanner Haney ring a bell? he said he was in Pueblo when Dad was bishop and I was like 3 lol but he remembered me! it was cool to chat for a minute. He's working for Erstin young firm out here. it was cool.

 

Sunday- Really good confirmation by Tripp... he did a real good job. Plus I love Sundays. Love, love, love talking to my family here. I would move into this ward in a heart beat. They are rock stars and I love em to death! Had a really really boring stake meeting... blah! lol but then some good times with missionaries. Had dinner at the Otani's.... still don't like going over there... but their son is about to go on a mission so I gotta suck it up and be there for him. Reports the 20th haha how funny right? but he's coming out with us a bunch this next few weeks. He's gonna be good to go! Japan I think is where he's heading. Then had a sweet lil missionary meeting to put #s in for the week. man it was a good good week.

 

So the McDonald's are legit.... there our WML and I seriously have made life long friends with em. We talk about literally everything! hahah so nice to have. Just goes to show you.... show some love and people will give it right back! Yesterday when we were getting a ride home from em, he was going off making this huge story of how fast I'll get married and have a kid and mini van and blah blah balh hahaha it was so funny! We really click. its awesome. love love love it here. these people I work with are just amazing.

 

Well gotta run. Another week down another week to go. Time is runnin out! but its good and bad. Heard housing was all taken care of. thanks :) my fasfa papers still haven't been processed at UVU yet so I'm a little worried about that. I'll call em this week and double check on em. Have fun at my school!! You should run down to the airport where my classes will be at too!

 

love yal! have a really good week!

 

-E. McAllister

 Going home papers...trunky

 Misty's Baptism

 Tanner Haney