March 24, 2014

Hey yal,

 

Man thanks for the long email.... it was so good to hear all about the week! Way to go sisters... don't look back leave it all on the track! yal are doing great and the season just started! Keep it up and yal be letterin and rockin the medal stand in no time! Sorry about the colds.... I'm also hurtin here because the fluke heat that we have the plants are putting off lots of pollen and bad junk the smart people say. So I was wondering if you could send some Zyrtec from Costco to me? cause I'm on Benadryl and it works til like 6pm and I'm dyin for the rest of the night. That would be so helpful seeing how I'm outside all day!

The beach was awesome! I love it so much. If I could take it with me in a suitcase I would. So much fun and the weather was absolutely perfect!

 

I'm in Moorpark Ward here in Saratoga Stake. We cover just south of the 280 and down to Prospect all around Saratoga Road. Its a super small area... takes 10 min to bike from top to bottom when we really huff it and hit the lights good.  Its a good ward.... just lots of old people and maybe like 10 strong families and that's it.

 

Funniest thing ever! Had dinner with the Posts...their kids are hilarious! They were actin like dinosaurs and chasing me and I grabbed like a plastic bat and was waving it around. So the boy Taylor sees a watering can and grabs it and lifts it over his head to throw it and gets drenched!!! It was sooooo funny! Man I was dying of laughter. Those parents gotta be laughin like every day with those kiddos. Its hilarious and she makes some amazing chocolate chip cookies.

 

haha I scratched some of the black finish so I took a sharpie to it. As well as my shoes lol ...the finish has pealed off and so I just sharpie in the brown hahahaha its redneck and Mcgyver for sure but it works! I'm trying to have all my clothes coast me in to the end. My pants are so ripped and torn and shirts are dropping everyday haha but they're hanging in there mostly. I think I can pull through.

 

Clarke will be Clarke  and I will be me and I'm happy. Things only bug me for like a day at most. learned the 10 10 10 rule. Will it matter in 10 min, will it matter in 10 days? Will it matter in 10 years? Most cases don't make it past the 2nd one.

 

E. Jackson says hes coming to USU with me now so he says winter semester but I'm trying to talk him into the fall. we'll see.

 

Today for pday we moved a lady the whole day! Its crazy.... shes Fijian and her grandma died in Fiji so get this - we started moving at 10 didn't get done til 430 and her flight left at 5 outta SF..... idk if she made it. Hopefully. It was cool though... we all had a good time and proved out man cards but fitting it all in a tiny uhaul and doing it all ourselves basically. We had to move a fridge by itself after the big load so we only had little bungee cords too no tiedowns or straps..... the Lord definitely helped keep that fridge in place and not falling and smashing the door. It was a good pday no sports or seeing other missionaries but its all good :) Shes got the cutest lil girl too... she pulled the door down on her and luckily E. Ayotte somehow got across the room and pushed it away from her before it smashed... whew Lord looking out again. he is everywhere!

 

Wish I could write more but we just gotta run to dinner. Only had a few min today cause the move. Hope yal have a good week.... kick some trash at track for me! Oh and can you send out a baseball glove? There's some kids that want to play catch with us. anywho love yal and wish the best for ya! Temple in 2 weeks heck yes!

 

-E.McAllister

March 18, 2014

hey yal,

 

Man, sounds like a great week! Glad Jenna's doin vb year round.... that will super help her get real good real fast! Meg 94.7 is legit for an opening meet! Like super legit specially with crazy wind. I hate wind.... there is literally no purpose for it but to torment us lol. You'll do just fine this year. If that's your bottom mark, all ya can do is go farther which is triple digits!  Keep it up... stay positive and happy!

 

Meg if you don't like teaching so much, you might want to rethink a mission. Its all about teaching and random questions being thrown at you and preparing lessons and talks and impromptu testimonies and opportunities to talk and talk and talk haha that sounded negative recap! Still go on a mission. Always getting called to teach is how the Lord is preparing you for whats ahead! Trust the Lord he knows what hes doing :)

 

This last week was good. Got fed pretty much each day, haven't found anyone who we can teach yet, definitely had a blast with Sonenstahl. We had a powwow with our WML Sunday and went over the logistics and stats of the ward and he was shocked at how tied our hands are here with DNCs and non willing people. Our teaching pool for non members is effectively zero. Javier moved......to Morgan Hill .... soooo life draining. Our golden boy gone. The Lord is definitely in it somewhere so that's good! Just have to start back at the bottom again. Luckily I have E. Sonenstahl cause we feed off each other a lot and have a blast together and make everything fun and positive Satan cant bring us down! This ward is like at the breaking point for the good.... I feel its like breaking that 100ft barrier in discus you get right up to it and never can seem to break it. Well we're there and the Lord knows when we're ready to break it and hit 150+.

 

Went to Santa Cruz yesterday for pday. Oh man was it legit! Perfect weather 75 and a slight breeze off the ocean to cool us off. Oh man it was perfect! Beach volleyball for hours on end and football to end it all. I love the beach.... its the best. And best of all I didn't get burnt! yes!!! hahah but yeah it was legit.  Had some legit pizza there and saw crazy people which Santa Cruz is known for and had a blast with the zone. Love the beach and the sun and volleyball.

 

We came home that day and got on the bikes for our appointment and one moment I'm looking at the road, the next I'm starring the road down..... flipped over my handlebars.... man haven't done that since day 1 of my mission...... dunno what happened but it was hilarious. Nothing too broken besides my ego haha but it was sure funny.

 

Traveling APs came to tag along with us the other day to evaluate us. Just happens to be my trainer E. Clarke. Man I prayed so hard to love him and to be happy with him but I just snap right back into the times I was being trained and tense up each lesson because I just know the inevitable criticisms are coming. It happened a bit this time because well that's his job now. But whateves, didn't let it get to me. We'll just see what he tells president.

 

Really havin a great time out here. We got to go give a blessing with Clarke and went to the park and found a "clergy only" spot. So we obviously count as clergy and parked haha it was legit! lol the little things in life are the ones you enjoy right? Well that seems to be the case with me a lot! 

 

Life is so good. I cant believe my mission is winding down. Everyone's asking me about going home already.... missionaries, members, everyone...... AHHHH!!!! haha let me enjoy the time of my life while I can! Just kidding, its not that bad but its like almost everyday. I just love my mission so much. If I could re-sign up for 2 more years I think I would. love love love love it here! The comradary   between missionaries and the love that members offer is just awesome. Love it so much. Love going home and just having a million aches and pains and muscle fatigue and tiredness and mental exhaustion..... best feeling ever. man its the best.

 

Hope yal have a super good week.... really enjoy each moment! Live it all to the fullest! Talking to pres about college and so I'll keep yal posted on that. Love ya

 

-E. McAllister

March 10, 2014

Hey Yal, 

Sorry yal are sick.... that's super not fun! but hey at least no school right?? that's a positive right?? haha hope yal get better soon.

The weather has warmed up and has been super hot the past few days like touchin 80 plus....with daylight savings its warmer later so we love not having to pack our jackets into our bags.

New bike is fantastic! Except when I got it the color was nasty brown so $10 in spray paint and some newspaper later and its now Aggie's colors haha with deep dish rims. It's super sick... bull horn handlebars... its legit. I can outrun the bike police! Yeah no joke there's fat white cops on bikes here... soooo funny to see em huff and puff around. Its a super nice bike though love it so much!! Thanks for the money for it! I forgot my camera so I'll send a pic next week.

Got possible work in Logan! E. Call, my son, has family that owns ranches outside Logan so I'm working on seein if they need hired help through the school year and then I'll talk to pres this week about stuff too. 

This week was like 50 years long..... it was ridiculous! Transfers and meetings galor and it was a little crazy but!!! E. Housekeeper and Jackson from my MTC group are now in the zone so the 3 of us will all go home together from here! We got a new sister to help cover the ward too... shes got lil dog syndrome but that's OK. I mean she is only 4.9 anyway. Glad your not that short huh Meg? hahahaha

Got an email from Lavelua already.... he's doing really good. He basically tried to convert each airport he was in.... it was hilarious to hear about it! but life is good for him... he's lovin it.

This week super long but we had fun too. This area's hard cause we've literally gone through the entire ward list and not many want us to come back even active members can't have us over lol like not even for a lil lesson let alone dinner. ahhhhhhhhhhhh this week I woulda snapped if Sonenstahl and I didn't have so much fun haha. but we just keep movin along. tryin new things and hope something will come of it. Almost lost Javier to drugs again........... he's slipping fast :/ don't know what the Lord is teaching us but we'll figure it out in His time :) 

So this week we had the best service of my mish! We built a playground! from start to finish! with Home Depot and the San Jose Sharks! I got a sweet shirt and they put signed hockey pucks in the mulch and I found one! Heck yes!! Super cool stuff but I literally mixed 600LB easy of concrete by wheelbarrow and shovel. It was sweet.... I love manual labor and now I'm an expert at concrete! That stuff is legit! plus an awesome workout too ;) So fun!  There was 20ish missionaries there and maybe 40 others from the community so we had good face time with the community. It was so fun. soooo awesome!!!! loved it.... I got so dirty and oh man just the best day! Got L&L BBQ after to top if off and man what a good day. loved it!!!

The mission is awesome! Love every second of it! Its the best! Everyone needs to go on one, even none members. They need missions cause they are so fun and helpful to kiddos. Life is super good. Like beyond good. Like extremely good. Like the best!

Weather's looking pretty warm this week upper 60s and low 70s.... I'm excited! 

Can't think of much else but volleyball and the beach right now haha I want to go to Santa Cruz super bad right now! Hopefully soon! Love yal.... feel better and I'll talk to ya next week!

-E. McAllister

March 3, 2014

hey yal!

So good to hear from yal  Sounds like a super exciting week lol CSAP..... whahoooo lol

MEG!!! YOU GOT INTO THE Y! That's awesome!! So proud of ya! haha all those late nights of homework and stressin over classes paid off!! haha heck yes! Way to go! If you got BYU down, you obviously got USU down..... easy. I'm so happy for you.... that's is awesome. You will do super well whichever school you go to. Seriously you'll be reinventing calculus or somethin.

haha yeah college.... gotta figure that out. I've been going through all the majors and I am so over my head.... well see what happens. The Lord's got my back! I know in whom I put my trust.

Kk.... you're almost 12.  Holy cow yal are getting old fast.... I'm not gonna recognize yal when I get back! haha hold up a card with my name I might not know where to go haha!

Glad you got the memory card. I was worried it didn't get to ya but I'm glad it did. Can you email me the picture of the palm tree and ol Glory? I usually sign journals with that but I forgot to get it on my flash drive 1st lol.

Gettin the bike tonight! So excited for it! E. Morgan's bike..... I'm grateful for it but man the chain slips and I almost crash like all the time hahahahah keeps me alert I guess but it'll be nice to get my own bike that hasn't been through that much beating. 

So this week was a blast but also kinda hard for me. Biking in the rain was a blast haha we loved it! Got like an inch of rain in a day or so, but I feel like we're in the middle of the rain forest haha.  We went to dinner one night and we were just soaked through and through.  We got up to leave an hour and a half later and our pants were still soaked haha! It was so funny, but we love it.  Our bodies may be soaked, but our spirits are on fire and we've got the biggest smiles on our faces haha.  Riding by one time this car just flew past and nailed a 3in puddle and just covered me haha just like in the movies! so funny! They felt so bad when we got to the light. I just smiled and laughed it off. Lucky I've got this awesome jacket...... keeps my shirts dry.

We seemed to have everyone cancel on us this week...... members for spits and appointments but we made the best we could and tried for the pity of us being cold and drenched to get into houses and that still didn't work lol but oh well we still worked hard and had a blast. The time of not knowing what to do, lead us to stop by this LA PM house and they are the coolest family ever! He's only LA cause he works 2 jobs trying to keep afloat and works Sundays but we chatted like we were best friends and talked missions and the wife was so cool too and it was funny at the end of it they said this was the best meeting they had with missionaries cause past ones thought they like didn't know the gospel and such and that wasn't cool but they want to feed us! So that's cool plus he's a private investigator so we heard some crazy stories!! It was cool cause you know some missionaries just don't jive with some people and its so cool that all these doors are opening for us.

At church yesterday, this ol lady came up and said I remind her of her son and kept talking about the comparisons and asked me to bear my testimony so she could hear me speak lol I guess I just can really jive with ol people lol.   A bunch of people too tell Sonenstahl that he talks alot more and such which is perfect! cause I just let him take the lead so he can grow and learn and its working pretty well.  I love being the "breaker" of missionaries. My favorite part of being a missionary because some missionaries are so dang stiff and unhappy..... its just not good. The Lord has really blessed me to know how to help em, whether it be rough and tough or gentle and comforting. Its a true blessing of the Lord and I just hope I can be that tool to influence and help some missionaries go from OK to happy and good to extraordinary. 

So E. Lavelua goes home tomorrow. Went to his out going fireside last night..... wow he lit the pulpit ablaze with his testimony. That is a man who happened to this mission. He built up every area and strengthened every missionary. wow  I am gonna miss him so much. He is so passionate too. His eyes are like on fire all the time...... strongest faith I've ever seen in a person. The most trusting in God and shows it. I remember the nights we had at LA houses in Menlo where the kids would tell us the're done with life and givin up and I remember him just speaking so boldly and with fire and passion yet all outta love. Man it was so cool and the spirit is so strong in those moments. He's a great guy.... really gonna miss him.

Got to see alot of members from Hollister and Santa Clara too that night, Porcha Suhar, Frank Casio, Navarro's,  Moors,  McFarland's, Chris Parle, my menlo park polys! and all my bestest friends from the mission. Man I loved it.

 

Sis. Barker, who came out with me, went home too. ahhhhh that means 6 months....... crazy!!! I'm so going crazy lol 

President Boyd K. Packer, President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, once attended an ox pulling contest, where he drew out an analogy. He said of the experience: “A wooden sledge was weighted with cement blocks: ten thousand pounds [4,535 kg]—five tons. … The object was for the oxen to move the sledge three feet [91 cm]. … I noticed a well-matched pair of very large, brindled, blue-gray animals … [the] big blue oxen of seasons past.”

In speaking about the result of the contest, he said: “Teams were eliminated one by one. … The big blue oxen didn’t even place! A small, nondescript pair of animals, not very well matched for size, moved the sledge all three times.”

He was then given an explanation to the surprising outcome: “The big blues were larger and stronger and better matched for size than the other team. But the little oxen had better teamwork and coordination. They hit the yoke together. Both animals jerked forward at exactly the same time and the force moved the load” (“Equally Yoked Together,” address delivered at regional representatives’ seminar, Apr. 3, 1975; in Teaching Seminary: Preservice Readings [2004], 30).

As we look ahead and believe, we need this same teamwork in hastening the work of salvation as we invite others to come unto Christ. In our individual capacities, we need to follow the counsel of President Dieter F. Uchtdorf to “stand close together and lift where we stand” (“Lift Where You Stand,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2008, 56). We can tap our full potential, just as was observed by Elder L. Tom Perry of the Quorum of the Twelve: “As I travel throughout the Church I marvel at all the positive things that are occurring. Yet I never feel that we, as a people, are living up to our real potential. My sense is that we do not always work together, that we are still too much interested in aspirations for personal honors and success, and show too little interest in the common goal of building the kingdom of God” 

That's what my focus is on this zone..... to humble missionaries to be lil oxen working together rather than big "me Monster"(Brian Regan skit) oxen. Its definitely an uphill task but the Lord helped me do it in Menlo so He should be able to help me do it here too if its His will. Man I love it...... love my mission. Nobody needs a missionary like another missionary.... I feel that's a big reason why I'm out here...... teachin em how to fish rather that just given em fish ya know? love it.

Remember me when you're sitting in your car with the weather comin down and the wind blowing ... picture me in it with the biggest smile and singing country songs with Sonenstahl with our amazing tone deaf voices and having the time of our lives :) cause that's how great life is! Happiness is in the little things!

love yal!

-E. McAllister