I feel like I just had P-day. Oh Well. Who's complaining?

Dear Family,

 

It was great to talk to you.  I really loved seeing everyone and it was nice to remember that everyone is actually real.  I was talking to my zone leader later that night and it was funny because we both felt like it is a little surprising that life in the outside world keeps going on.  And also that I still know everyone.  I don't know if that makes sense- but it's kind of like my communication with everyone is so limited that family and friends suddenly become what is on this piece of paper and it was nice talking to you because it was a good reminder that hey you actually are real people.  Any way enough of that.  I do agree with pretty much everyone that I wished we could have talked more.  Oh well. Mother' day is only 5 months away.  We will try again then.

 

Christmas was actually a really great day.  After talking to you went to the YSA ward and then we went to a nonmember's house for Christmas dinner.  She is the mother of two missionaries out from the YSA ward and even though she doesn't live in our area she requested permission to have us over for dinner.  It was really fun and entertaining.  Sister Gittins and I spent about 45 minutes talking to their neighbor.  She was a really nice lady but very opinionated.  She talked about how as independent women we can do a lot to help the situation of other women to gain the rights that they deserve.  It actually was very inspiring and I started thinking about how grateful I was for the church and our emphasise on families centered on the teachings of Jesus Christ.  I know that learning through our families is how really change in this world can be made.  I shared a little of my thought with her.  She listened but I think she was thinking more about more fully breaking the glass ceiling in the business world.  My favorite part of the conversation was when she asked us what would happen if we met a nice young man on our mission, could we date them?  I said, "No and we aren't even supposed to flirt."  She looked at me and said, "Well if you ask me that just doesn't seem natural.  I don't think that is what Jesus would do!"  Ha!  I loved it!!

 

After that we went to a family in the family ward and they were just wonderful.  It really reminded me of Christmas dinners at home and it was so nice.  The only problem was during our spiritual message the dog started to lap up water so loudly the entire family started to laugh.  Then during the closing prayer the dog started snoring.  I feel like the worst missionary in the world but I started laughing during the prayer- which then made the rest of the family laugh.  WORST MISSIONARY EVER!

 

Oh and that is the second time I have started laughing during a prayer or spiritual message this week.  The other time I was at dinner with a family in our ward.  I mentioned the white house and we started talking about the secret service men.  I told them that my favorite was when I see an agent just sitting in a bush.  The mom looked at me and said, "Did you ever consider that they are in the bushes because the president neglected to provide an out house for them?"  I laughed and then when we started our message I just started thinking of some of the secret service people we know sitting in a bush and I kind of burst out laughing.  Sister Gittins has a lot of patience with me.  But in her words, "Oh heavens!"

 

Yesterday was a good day and I'm looking forward to this week.  I hope that we are able to get out of the holiday slump that is going on in our area.  Whoever said holidays were prime proselyting times were not thinking of Carlsbad California.  Everyone is way too busy and that just makes things difficult.  Of course, now everyone will be too busy because they are recovering from the holidays or starting school again.  I guess the work has to go on no matter what the calender says. 

 

I hope everyone has a great week.  It was great to talk to everyone on Sunday.  I love you and miss you a ton.

 

Love

Sister Allred

YEAH! Christmas is coming!

Dear Family,

 

Well I have super mixed feelings about this week.  It was long.  I mean SUPER loooong!  I think it was a good week but I'll be honest I don't really remember past Friday and I forgot my planner to help me remember.

 

Actually I'm not sure what happened this week.  Sunday night when we were counting up our numbers to call them in we were super shocked to see that we actually had pretty low numbers this week.  I have no idea how, but I'm excited for this week.  I think one thing i learned from this week is to keep and running total and refer back to our weekly goals regularly.  Anyway that is just missionary technical stuff, but it has been a big lesson for me this week. 

 

Friday and Saturday we went on exchanges.  I went with Sister Gilmore- she was in this area previously and was so happy to be back.  She kept talking about potentials and former that we should go and check on.  I was really pretty proud of myself because I could actually handle my own in the area.  I have decided though that I don't like my companion leaving the area.  I feel like there is always so much to catch up when she gets back.  We had a good exchange and I was happy to be back with Sister Gittins at the end. 

 

Oh gosh when I start thinking about the exciting things that happened this week they are all super nerdy missionary things that I don't know if anyone would be interested in.  Like we finally got a new ward mission leader in the YSA ward which is awesome.  We really haven't had one since I got here and I'm excited to get that ball rolling.  Or we had an awesome training yesterday at district meeting.  It was all about how our mission president has the keys to to work here in this mission and we need to make sure we are applying all of the training that the president is giving us.  It was really great.  Or I'm working more on my "teaching well" and its going awesome.  At teaching well is like the huge data base of all the resources I can pull from when planning my lesson for a specific person on a certain topic.  We are supposed to have a well to draw from for every principle in the missionary lessons.  It is super slow going but it's awesome.  Right now I am going through the scriptures and I am just learning so much.  I love spending that time in the morning reading and studying because I just know that this is the true church and the spirit confirms that every morning.  Anyway...that is my life right now.  Isn't it great! 

 

Hopefully when I talk to you on Sunday I will have more interesting stories.  I am going to be using skype at my ward mission leaders house in the 8th ward.  We have church at 9am and so I should be calling around 10:30am.  So what is that!  1:30 pm your time.  I am so excited to see everyone!  Oh also I finally got the music for the song I will be singing at the Christmas Conference on Saturday.  It's pretty but all I can say is I am so glad it is a choir and not a solo.   

 

Okay I think that's it for this week.  I love you and I'll talk to you on Sunday!!!!

 

Love Sister Allred

What a big week!

Dear Family,

 

Oh my gosh!  is sounds like it was an awesome week at home! That is awesome!  I mean really amazing.  Deborah, I'm tearing up right now because I'm so happy for you.  I really love you so much and I'm so happy for you. I wish I could have been there, but I am so happy for you.  Yeah!!

 

Rachel!!  Happy Birthday!!! I am so proud of you Rachel.  I thought about you a ton yesterday  I wished you happy birthday all the was over hear in Vista California.  Did you hear me?  I just think you are the coolest person ever.  I love you!  P.s. Mom, Rachel's birthday cake looked gorgeous!  Holy cow it was pretty.

 

Wow it just seemed like everyone in the family had a big week.  I had a pretty big week two.  We have been working hard although this week seemed to drag out FOREVER!!!  Yeah I can barely remember last Tuesday.  I met a lot of people in our ward and I think I'm beginning to remember who they are.  Which is super good.  I'm still getting lost in the area, but I think that is because I'm not looking at a map 10 times every day.  Also I just think the ward boundaries are funky.  I might have mentioned that before.  This Friday I'm going on exchanges with a sister from Carlsbad.  I'm staying here and was kind of nervous about it because I don't know the area super well, but tender mercy of the Lord- Sister Gilmore served in this area just a couple transfers ago. 

 

Our huge event this week was Nici's baptism.  It was awesome!  We spent most of the week trying to coordinate the program and pulling everything together.  That was a bit of a headache but amazingly enough it really did all pull together and the baptism was really nice.  Thank you Relief Society!  I really think it was another blessing of the Lord.  I know he wanted Nici to have a nice baptism that she would remember.  This was the first baptism I've seen as a missionary that I can say I helped with, (Even though I barely did anything).  I have to say watching someone get baptized is an amazing experience.  I could feel the spirit so strongly and I knew that this was something that the Lord was proud of Nici for doing.  I know the church is true if only because the actually ordinance of baptism is sort of weird and anti climatic.  I mean there is all this build up to the baptism and then a bunch of people gather around to watch to get pushed into water and then out which takes a total of 2 seconds.  It's weird.  But I know that it is true because the spirit was there so strongly.  I'm so happy for Nici! 

 

Sunday we had the usual church from 8:30 to 5pm.  This is what I get for covering 2 wards.  I'm pretty good at sitting through meetings, but really by the end of the last relief society I was rocking in my chair ready to bolt.  Of course then we had dinner with a family and then the missionaries in the YSA ward were asked to give a fireside on the atonement.  So Sister Gittins and I went back to church for a couple more hours.  Church.  Gesh I am never going to be done with meetings. 

 

Oh I forgot to mention that Saturday sister Gittins and I were asked to help in the family ward primary activity.  We spent 1 1/2 hours helping little primary kids write letters to the missionaries from their ward.  It was so cute and it just made me want to have my own classroom again.  I just loved it.  Although it was pretty funny because once when they were switching the groups of kids all of the adults left the room and Sister Gittins and I realized we were sanding in a room alone with a bunch of kids which is breaking a major rule.  We stood outside of the door awkwardly until the primary president realized what was happening and ran in so we could go back in the room.  It wasn't a big deal but it was pretty funny.  Anyway after all the groups cycled through the leaders asked us to come into the cultural hall and have a seat up front.  Then the primary kids gave us all wrapped presents.  It was so cute.  It was mostly food which was awesome!  One little boy was so proud that he had wrapped 3 individual oranges all by himself.  I loved it.  I have some pictures and I'll try  to send them to you. 

 

Yesterday we had interviews with the president.  I really like president and sister cook a lot.  I really loved the the end of my conversation with sister cook because she told me that they were happy I was in their mission.  She said that I was a missionary that she knew she didn't have to worry about.  I'm sure they say those things to all the missionaries but I was still glad to hear it.  Then Sister Gittins and I went out to do some work.  We spent 4 hours tracting and contacting in the pouring rain.  We still aren't completely dry but it was really fun.  At the end of last night even though it was super long I was just really happy.  I wish I could have been home for this week but I'm super happy to be out here.  I love what I'm doing. 

 

Anyway I love you all.  Oh send me the name of the skype account you want to use.  If we get a ward member to let us use their account then president said we can skype for Christmas. 

 

I'm excited to talk to you,

 

Sister Allred

New Companion-New Area-More people to love

Dear Family,

 

It feels like this week has been 2 weeks.  It has been really good but SO long!  I think mostly because I was so busy getting to know the new area and the people we are going to be teaching.  I really like Sister Gittins a lot.  She reminds me a ton of Ashley Crosby, just in the way she talks and expresses herself.  It's awesome, although I think she might be having a bit of a harder time with the new transition then I am. She was with her last companion for 3 transfers and she loved her a lot.  I'm actually surprised at how I'm feeling.  I thought I would feel really uncomfortable with coming into a new area and trying to get to know knew people but I don't I feel really good here.  Yeah I don't know what else to say about it except that I do feel really good here.  

 

I think I'm going to be staying here for a while because this will be Sister Gittins 4 transfer and it seems pretty unrealistic that she will stay here for another one.  But who knows?  Oh a little more about sister Gittins. She is from South Jordan Utah and she has been out 9 months.  This is her 2nd area and I'm her 4th companion.  It was really cool because on Wednesday we were talking and she brought up a time y first week in the mission when we were at a preach my gospel training and she and I were doing a practice.  I barely remembered it but that is probably because it was my first week.  Anyway, Sister Gittins remembers thinking about me, "She is going to be my companion one day."  The spirit of revelation is strong within this one.  Ha!  Anyway I really like her a lot.

 

I really like the family ward that I'm in.  All of the families that I've met are really nice and welcoming to the missionaries.  I love it.  We also have a baptism on Saturday which is awesome!  We are baptising a girl about my age named Nici.  She is married to a less active who is returning and they have a cute little girl.  I love going over to their house to teach them.  Also Nici and Greg met in Victorville, so we bonded over memories of victorville and silverado-  although it is true that i never actually went to silverado. 

 

The one thing that I really don't like about the family ward is that the ward boundaries are just funky.  That's it- they are just funky and I am having a hard time knowing where I am.  In La Costa is was easy because I would look for the ocean and know exactly where I was.  You just can't do that in Vista.  Also because we are over the Singles ward our singles ward boundaries cover the whole stake.  There have been a ton of times where I wasn't even in my family area and had no idea.  This will be my struggle this week. 

 

I've had to laugh a little this week because Vista and La Costa are very different.  When Sister Gittins and I were out contacting one day I mentioned how the palm trees in Vista were all over grown and the old palm frons were dead.  Sister Gittins said you would see a lot of that in Vista and my first thought was, "La Costa would never dream of having their palm trees like that."  I don't think I ever realized until that moment just how similar La Costa and Columbia were.  Maybe that is why I felt so at home there.  Maybe that is why Sister Bean would call me a spoiled rich girl.  (In a loving and gentle way of course!)

 

So, I got a call last night from a sister in the mission that I had never met but I had heard a lot about.  She asked if I wanted to be in a choir for the Christmas conference we are having on Christmas eve.  I was so shocked that this sister was calling me that I said, "Oh of course!"  Then she went on to tell me that there were only about 12 in the choir, she would sent me the sheet music in the mail, I needed to know my part because we would only have about an hour to practice before we sang in front of the whole mission.  What was I thinking!  Now instead of looking forward to the Christmas conference like I had been doing for about a month, I am dreading it.  Oh gosh what did I just do.

 

Anyway It was great to hear from everyone today.  I love you so much and I'll write you again today. 

 

Love Sister Allred

 

I forgot to ask,  Sister Gittins and I are trying to think of new creative ideas for the thank you notes we do for dinner.  My first thought was to google it but obviously I can't.  If you guys want to brainstorm some things I would really appreciate it.  Also In the YSA ward council I sat next to a guy named Patrick?  I think?  Anyway he asked if I knew the Henderson and I said I did.  He apparently is the Ashley Henderson's brother in law.  Small world!

 

Thanks,

 

Sister Allred