Hoop, there it is!

Well, it's been a good week. Each day we just go out to work at different times because there are so many different things to take care of. Life seems to have sped up. We have had normal things happen like Zone training meeting and stuff like that throws a fun little twist in the schedule. One cool thing that came from ZTM is that we really are trying to work more with the ward. I love that because people are awesome! We should all learn how to better work with people. Especially in missionary work. Working with members and through members is the best way for retention. I invite us all to be the best member missionaries we can. 

One cool thing we had to do this week was to go find an apartment. We looked for about an hour and didn't find anything then found some real potential. We went and talked to the guy and he had two apartments on the 3rd floor which are perfect for what we need. They are great and the guy was super nice. The real story is what's on top of the apartment. On the roof of the apartment is a basketball court!! It's not a full-sized hoop but hey...a hoop is a hoop. Of course, they let us play a little and have some fun. The apartment is also perfectly located with tons of things around it. It's like a dream elders apartment! 

One of my friends here in the mission fell in a manhole- so that was crazy.(Note to self, always watch where you step in the Philippines) 

Well yeah that's about all that's worth sharing. 

So a little spiritual thing this week is that I really just love the Christlike attributes. I love them because ,as Jenny McAllister would say, "they have everything and nothing to do with the gospel of Jesus Christ." That means they even relate to just our daily lives as humans. Jesus taught us how we should live as people. It's part of everyday life. Always relate it back to him. 

Well, thanks for taking the time to read. Get off your phone now and go throw a ball with someone while it's still good weather. Don't waste your time on the phone. Love you. Bye

Elder McAllister

August 11

Well, this week went by like a sneeze. It like came, and I saw it coming but then like I closed my eyes and it was done before I knew it. Similar to a sneeze.  That was a stupid analogy.

This week went by way quick. We had exchanges with the AP's which was good. A good chance to learn to teach better. It was great. 

We got to do a little missionary presentation in our ward on Sunday that went great! It was a fun little time sharing to the ward. This ward I am in right now is excellent. Really great priesthood and leadership from all auxiliaries. Anyways we were supposed to have 2 baptisms this week but they got moved back which is totally ok. It gives more time to prepare and an opportunity to get more people to the baptism. This means in the next few weeks 3 of our true friends will be baptized. Man oh man, they are ready too. The only sad part is that I am getting emergency transferred tomorrow morning. (Ibig sabihin magpapack ako ulit!! Grabe! ) I got a call from president that let me know I'm transferring a week early. Oh man!! That means i won't get to see those people enter the font. But hey, that's all good cause what matters is that they get baptized and continue to follow Christs gospel. Also, a cool thing in our mission is we can message on FB our recent converts so I will still have communication with them! 

So some of the highlights of this last week was having some great days of work that were super productive and a fun thing me and Elder Faletoi did was buy laser pointers on the street for like 15 pesos and that is about the same as 30 cents in the US- haha. we bought them and played with kids and with dogs and with cats every night hahaha. It's way funny to see- haha. Other highlights is I got to deep scrub the house before I leave. ("Leave no trace".) Should be a great new adventure and such going over to Valenzuela. 

I'll share a cool experience. God really humbled me. Really touched me Friday night. So we had been punted from 2 appointments and had about an hour left before we needed to go home. So we went to this part of our area we have never been to plan to find members or tract. So we go there and pull out the phone. We had no idea where to go or what to do. I had felt kind of defeated that day too. (Never that defeated cause each day is a great day) but I was kind of ready to go home honestly. Just tired. Anyways I look to Faletoi and say "what should we do? I got no idea." He says the same thing to me...and right at that moment we hear a voice and see a light and turn around and this cute old couple and their daughter and her kids are all standing at the door behind us and they are in awe. Like awestruck. This little old Nanay is like bamboozled and so we smile big and realize instantly this was from god. I tell Faletoi "and that's how God just humbled us. Let go share the message" this family was so nice and welcomed us in and we taught a great small lesson on families and the church of Jesus Christ and why they are important. They loved it and said we could come back and teach all of them as a family. Cause the little girls went into a room and hid haha they were just giggling the whole time. It's not every day that two big old dudes all dressed up come stand outside your house. (Me and Faletoi are both over 6 ft and over 200 lbs haha so we sometimes stand out) the funniest part of this was that the nanay was just looking at me like I was a million bucks haha made me feel good to see her have the biggest smile on her face! Anyways. It was great and I hope they progress down the path! I sure love this gospel. I'm thankful that its all made possible because of Jesus Christ. He really is the center because if he wasn't, then none of it would work. I am eternally thankful to my brother and savior Jesus Christ. 

Been a good week yall. I hope you all have a great great week and do a small act of kindness every day. That's my challenge. Make it a great week everyone. Talk soon. 

Elder McAllister

First weekly email in a while

Well, this is the first weekly email I have written in a while. Its the first day I have had that I feel like taking the time to write it. One thing I learned about myself is that I would way rather talk in-person to people than write tons of emails- haha. So that's why every week I read a few emails and then just call and chat with the fam. I think that's kind of how it should be. A good friend of mine mentioned how important that unit of families are in the church and I second that. They are the most important unit in this world. A good strong family is the best way for gods children to return to him. He's happy to send his children to a good strong family because he knows that child is much more likely to come all the way back to him. I sure feel lucky to have the family I do. One thing about the world I have found (at least in my neck if the woods right now) is that satan sure loves to shatter families. I have seen so many your women pregnant here and fathers that leave and families that have multiple marriages and there are just so many hardships that come from that. I want you to all know that Satan is good at his job. Gaurd your self continually. Stay close to God.

Well, this week has been awesome! Things are picking up each week! I feel like every day I run out of time. Time keeps speeding up and there is just too much to do in a day. It's so much fun too! I see many times missionaries somberly going throughout the day and it's kind of sad. We all need a little smile, a little color, a little passion in our lives. When we have that passion, we then turn it into action (Afleekon) and then can really make things happen. Become who we want to become and most importantly become who God wants us to become. I've loved each day trying to beat the clock. Ask ourselves this. How much good can we do today? How much fun can I have while doing good today? How can I be a tad better than yesterday? This is part of gods plan. To have joy, to improve, to do good. Live, laugh and love. Life is good folks. 

We have some way awesome people we are working with. This is a quick cool experience. Sister Ginging is our pal. She rocks. We go to teach about the Word of Wisdom. Girl loves her coffee. Tells us how it's her love. We look at each other and tell her about how its something we iwasan (avoid). She laughs and says, seriously?? We talk for a second and laugh at the situation. We extend the commitment to follow the word of wisdom. She doesn't even hesitate and says yes. I'll throw it all out tonight. Boom. Spirit hits me like a wall seeing her dedication and love for God and her trust in us and her respect for gods commandments. Got me thinking. How much are we willing to sacrifice to the Lord? That's a hard question. If the church came out and said we are adding sugar to the Word of Wisdom, could we do it? I hope so. (That's a joke. Chocolate is still ok... for now) Anyways I thought that was cool and wanted to share. 

Well, I'll share a little thing about daily life. Yesterday we had 2 dinner appointments. Great time talking to members and past missionaries.  I love hearing peoples stories. Anyways after 2 dinner appointments that wasn't enough for my eager brain. 1 week ago I bought stuff to make peach cobbler.  So last night I creatively used the rice cooker (no ovens in the Philippines) to make peach cobbler. It didn't work. Don't try it. But if you do and it works, send me the recipe and let me know how to make it. Maybe I just sucked it up. Anyways it wasn't terrible but it wasn't all that good. I had a good laugh about it. We called it rice cooker cobbler. 

Well, that's about enough of your guys time today. So you know what time it is. Time to turn off your cell phone and go talk to someone! Go do some service or play outside. But don't waste your time here on your phone. Haha

Really, things are going great here! I'm thankful for all my family and friends! Love y'all! Make it a great week! 

Elder McAllister

June and a new comp

Howdy howdy. Well been a great week here in Kaypian and we had transfers and stuff. So I am now with my first white American comp. Elder Warner is great! He is from Nebraska and he is just one transfer behind me. He is a simple guy and super kind and respectful. I love his attitude and we get along great.  I also was given the opportunity to be a district leader over one of the youngest districts in the mission so that has been fairly cool. I love doing the weekly numbers and I just think it's so fun and IDK, you guys know how I get excited about the little things -haha. 

So we have had great work here this week and we are hoping to have a lot of great success here in the ward. It was hard last week cause my comp was sick so we didn't get to work as hard or much as I would have liked. But we must always help our companions, so that was good to help him. This week has been fun and we learned some things that will happen in our mission. SO the end of June we get smart phones. Like way nice ones, so that's cool. Much cooler than our little bricks right now. Then on June 24 there will be another transfer cause our mission ( Quezon City North Mission) splits here on July 1. So there is a chance that I could be a half mission in Quezon City north and the other half in Quezon city. We don't know where we will be but that will be pretty crazy. So that's about it. Pretty cool. Well this week nothing really funny happened that I can remember. But I did do a lot of cool thinking about the subject of Consistency and Diligence and Self Discipline. I love those things. Be the same person at all times. Everywhere you go, make it a holy place and be a genuine person everywhere. When you are behind the scenes work hard and keep being a great person. This is part of the mission. Sometimes missionaries put on a show when they are around investigators or president and stuff. But if we try to be ourselves and respectful at all times then we will become genuine people. Genuinely good people. There's a lot of ways my brain pulls this topic and I really could go on and on about it. I hope we can all be diligent and consistent in doing what we want to accomplish our goals. We are the ones who determine what happens in our lives. 

I now remember a few things that happen. I lost my missionary card for money this week. That kind of sucks. Then we had a great dinner at a friends house before my comp transferred and then also, I got my hair cut but a bakla. That's Filipino for gay dude. If you see them you would think they are girls till they speak. They use like a different language too cause they use so much gay slang and it's weird. But they sure know how to cut hair. So that was funny. There's a lot of baklas here in the Philippines. This has been "culture facts with elder mcallister". Thanks, come again. 

Overall good week. Hope y'all have a great week. Take care. Make it a great week. 

Elder McAllister

Mother's Day

Well first of all, HAPPY MOTHERS DAY to all of the women out there. I have to say that I have been blessed with the women in my life from teachers in primary, to leaders and neighbors, to friends, and just amazing examples in my life. I would not be who I am without all of you in my life. The ones that I am so thankful for are my grandmas and the amazing people they are. I love them more than I can share. They raised great kids to become my parents and my parents are the biggest gift from God for me. My mom is the number one reason I am who I am. I love her more than I can comprehend. She is the Greatest person I know. HAPPY MOTHERS DAY to all.

Well, this week has been good and I believe in being honest so I will be -haha.

My comp is hard at times with being immature and such. At times we disagree. Hey everyone- guess what? That's part of the mission! It's not perfect and neither is anyone! Isn't a great thing to see two guys just trying to get along and do great! I mean I love the guy to death and he is so happy and friendly but everyone missions are not perfect -haha. So there's my factual part of the week. This week has been great in the work and super fun. One thing I learned about life is that if you want to feel better and get better in any aspect of life, look for those things that gain confidence. I gained a lot of confidence in my self in speaking Tagalog and its super fun now. I mean to say that confidence can be a huge help to so many things. Missionaries should strive to have confidence in themselves and their comps and the spirit. Those three are huge game changers.

I found a wicked cool wood mask this week and it is dope!!! I found it buried in the ground and now it's my souvenir. So that's that.

We had exchanges this week which were one of my favorite days and it rained so hard I was not dry anywhere and the depths of my soul were wet. This rain was crazy!! Soooooo fun too! We just ran through it and still kept trekking and we were pooped at the end of the day but it was so so fun!! I love the rain and now one of my dreams came true! My dream was to preach the gospel in another country in another language and in the rain and just be soaking wet running from place to place and it was sooooo fun!!!! There's my fun highlight of the week! Then spiritually, my highlight of the week was just my personal prayers. I challenge all of us to try and be as focused and sincere as we can. I really get distracted especially when I am tired. If we make it meaningful it really helps. God appreciates it too. Super cool.

I see lots of little miracles in my life weekly and I think we always need to thank God for what we have and our blessings because it's all from him. I am not here cause of myself. I am nothing without his help. I loved talking with my parents on mothers day cause heavenly father and my mom and dad are the three reasons my life is the way it is and I am who I am. I've still got a lot of work to do and I am glad God helps everyone of us. Take the time to acknowledge his hands in our life!!

Well overall just another week. I don't have much else to share except that life is good. Gods good. He loves us and I am so thankful for all of you. You are all super big influences in my life and you deserve to be told thanks for your hands in my life. Y'all are amazing and I hope you have a great week. Your pal in the Philippines.

Elder McAllister

Kaypian, SJDM, Bullacan, Philippines

This week

Well, pretty average week here. So I will just share a couple cool things about my week. One- we hiked a cool mountain today. Then we get to email, and talking to family is the biggest blessing in my life. Also had some cool things this week. This LA we have been working with was able to get the priesthood and bless the sacrament and so that was the coolest thing on Sunday and he bore a great testimony that really touched me. We had some great lessons this week where the spirit was super apparent to all of us there. Some lessons aren't like that just based on the kids or the situation of the day. But really, God helps this work more than we know. There is no way I should be capable of doing stuff like this. I really am not capable, but because I try, and because we try, God makes up for what we lack. When we turn it to him by doing our side of the bargain, he gives us more strength and help than we deserve. I am so grateful for the learning I have here in the mission. It's really, really not like I expected but it's way harder. But it's what I need. God is so good and he really loves us. I really love the work and these people. Life is good. We got to help this old lady feel great this week just by stopping by and saying hi and such. Super cool to make her day. It changed her whole week. So cool. Lots of little miracles this week. Just depends on us if we want to see them. Gods so much better than we even realize. 

Great life and a great week. Fun pics from birthday and hiking and all that jazz. Make it a great week everyone. Short email this week. Just know that I really pray for all of you. Thanks for all the prayers from you and thanks for all you guys have done in my life. Everyone who reads this email has had an impact on my life more than you think. I am able to be here right now in the Philippines because of all of you. Thank you from the bottom of my heart truly. You are always in my prayers. 

Have a great week. What a great day to be alive. 

Mahal ko kayo
Elder McAllister

Elder McAllister

It's May

Howdy howdy! Been a good week! 

With a new comp in the same area, I have learned a lot and gained a lot of confidence in my language skills. I am not amazing but I am getting better weekly and gaining confidence. This week has been fun and my comp is really a fun guy. We get along great and love to tell stories and stuff. He is older in the mission and I can't wait to learn some stuff from him. 

Well, this week was good cause I have been focusing on the good and being a little more appreciative of the good and spiritual things I feel and experience each day. We had some good lessons this week that felt the spirit well and also some times that tried my patience with people- haha. Sometimes there are so many distractions in people lives. I tell myself to remember to invite, not force. Also, be Christlike and have patience. Can be hard at times, but we will always get better as we try. 

Kind of a cool quote I got from my mom this week is " Gratitude turns what we have into enough" 

I know that's true. Being a little more thankful lets us feel a lot more comfortable. Makes us a lot happier. Everyone, be thankful to those great people in your life and the good things that happen to you everyday. Let God know you're thankful too. 

Our ward is good and our investigators are ok. We are working this week to get better progressing investigators. Its been nice to have a new set of eyes in the area and get a new opinion on the people we teach. Should be a good week looking for new investigators. I can't wait! 

Anyways we should be getting smartphones tomorrow and so that will be cool. I really have a hard time using the little tiny ones we have now. I always hit two buttons with my thumb. Also, it takes me still quite a while to text. 

So here's the story of the week. Tuesday we have a zone training meeting and then go out to eat after. I got a package ( which by the way is like having a Christmas on a regular day ) so we had to drop it off at our place. So we get home and realize neither one of us has the phone... In our minds and words... "Awww man. Eh, it's ok...." then we walk in the house and go to wash our hands and the sink doesn't work. I go outside and check and there's a lock on our water meter... lol.. So in like one day we had no water and no phone- haha. We went to pay the bill and they told us we have to pay in a different city. We can't really leave our area so that's out of the question. So we just laughed cause we couldn't pay our bill- we had the money and no phone and no water haha- good day if you ask me. Really we laughed about it. Then the next day I talked around our neighborhood and to the guard of our subdivision and found out he can pay the guy who comes around with the stupid locks. So we gave him our money he paid the guy and we had water the next night. The one morning we had to take a trike and jeep to another elders house to just shower- haha. We have to shower here everyday cause It's so, so, so, hot. I drench all my shirts everyday- haha. 

So that's my week and some things I thought I would share. I just want to say that spiritually we can all grow, but we all have to grow for ourselves. Do what you can to help yourself grow closer to God -that's my invite to you all. I know this work is hard, I know this work is great, its fun at times and really stressful at others. A mission is explainable and also just what I need. I know the gospel of Jesus Christ is so true. I love him and my father in heaven. 

I love emailing and especially calling my family. Indescribable joy there in my family. Have a great week yall and keep being awesome.

Elder 

John Landon McAllister