Whelp, it's official.
We are now the Tralee Branch of the Bucket Hat Brigade.
And also, apparently summer is officially over? The sun kinda just...disappeared and the locals said it's not coming back until next year. So I'm back to layering jumpers.
We went on a sort of last hurrah adventure together today, and bought bucket hats. Not ones that necessarily match each other, but that definitely match our personalities.
Mine is red, and I look like paddington bear. Especially in my ochre jumper and wellies and navy rain coat, but who's lookin?
Well folks, we entered Phase 3 of lockdown today! Which means travel anywhere in the country is legal, all shops are open, practically everything's open, and....
baptisms are legal.
To take a walk down memory lane, when I first came to Tralee, everything had a "CLOSED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE" sign on it. If we were outside and someone was walking towards us, they would usually cross to the other side of the street. We were allowed to go outside once a day in a 5km radius, and our favorite past time was watching the gaurdi stop every passing car and inquire on their destination. We didn't have a teaching pool, the members didn't quite remember we existed, and we spent 18+ hours a week friending people on facebook, messaging them, and attempting to build up God's kingdom in Tralee brick by brick. At that point, we didn't even have bricks. We were doing it bucket by bucket, tryna scoop up enough clay from the loch to even make bricks.
AND IT WAS SO FUN.
Making something out of nothing is probably one of God's favorite past times. He's so good at it! Please understand. Did anything super crazy happen these past few months? Nah. Are we Ammon and Amulek? HECK NAH. Once we watched the Best Two Years for comp study, are you kidding me? (It's approved, don't worry) In fact, some days we were L-A-Z-Y. Sometimes it's hard to muster up motivation and love for people you've never seen in the flesh before. I mean, they could be CATFISH.
But they're not. At least a few of them aren't. A couple of them definitely were actually. I met some psychopaths. But we also met a handful of my very favorite in the whole universe (WHICH GOD MADE FROM UNORGANIZED MATTER...HOW COOL IS THAT???)
that I'll be taking with me to my next area at least in my heart if not in my suitcase.
There's Jason, who is getting baptized on July 25th and is painting a special painting just for his baptism right now.
There's Geraldine, who is MY INSPIRATION AND IS LITERALLY SUPERWOMAN who writes down every conference talk for relief society word for word each week and her testimony too while she's at it.
There's Joseph, who's Jason's cousin, who is hopefully getting baptized with Jason and fights the good fight every day! He's a powerlifter!
There's Ollie, who reached out to us after Sunday Sunshine Hour one week and asked how he can help spread the gospel via technology! Oh YEAH! OLLIE!!!! He's the one I promised I would tell you more about a while ago right before I lowkey stopped writing weeklies! I wrote a limerick about him, remember? He's the best. He's about our age, the most common words out of his mouth are "tell me more!" and he wants to get baptized too! One of his many aspirations in life is to have one of his films showcased at the Sundance Film Festival. When we told him 2/3 of the Tralee Three live within 45 minutes of the place, he FLIPPED.
Wednesday was our 100 day in quarantine mark, so we ate 100 chicken nuggets throughout the day. Wouldn't recommend if you're not in a trio.
I also painted a lot this week, and baked some banana muffins if you haven't heard, and got trapped in an elevator for a good cause, and a few other fun things I'll tell you about in person one day!
This was actually the longest week of our lives, and we have no idea why. We all felt it though. Part of it may be because we can tell our time together as the Tralee Three is coming to a close. It was real. It was fun. And you know what? It WAS real fun.
A scripture to end with! {paraphrased from Alma 8}
"And thus ended the second and a half month of the reign of the Tralee Three over the people of Kerry.
And when Sister Allen had finished her work at Tralee she departed hence, and traveled three days journey on the north of the land of Ireland; and she came to a city which was called Dublin.
And Sister Allen went forth, and also Sister Blatter, among the people of the internet, to declare the words of God unto them; and they were filled with the Holy Ghost.
And they had smartphones given unto them, insomuch that the missionary work could not be confined in quarantine, neither was it possible that the gaurdi could arrest them for preaching the gospel.
And it came to pass that they went forth and began to preach and to prophesy unto the people, according to the features and the policies of Facebook which Mark Zuckerberg had given them."
Aaaand that's all. Since this will possibly be my last email coming to you live from the Limerick Zone, I'd like to share a limerick with you about my time in Tralee.
There once was a county named Kerry
Where resided three sisters, quite merry.
They laughed and they cried,
But all their tears dried,
At the touch of His hand (son of Mary).
Ok that kind of sucked. But that's all I have the brain capacity for, because it's TIME TO PACK MY BAGS AND HEAD NORTH! Who am I kidding, it's actually time for dinner.
We can think about those things later.
In the meantime, DON'T FORGET TO FEAST ON THE WORD OF GOD THIS WEEK!
I promise you that you will literally never regret a single second that you ever spend in the scriptures!
Here's the app!
The church is true,
Sister Allen
Pictures:
-The Tralee Branch of the Bucket Hat Brigade
-A few paintings I've done recently
-Us eating chicken nuggets on Day 100
PS. Thank you soooooooo much for watching Sunday Sunshine Hour and being so supportive in so many other ways!
PPS. Sometimes I read my emails after I send them and I'm like, wow I'm so dramatic. And long winded. So if you made it this far, thanks for enduring to the end!
THIS IS EMAIL ONE OF TWO, SHE MADE UP FOR NOT WRITING LAST WEEK. I'LL SEND ONE OUT TONIGHT ONE OUT TOMORROW NIGHT. STAY TUNED BECAUSE THE NEXT ONE TALKS OF HER ADVENTURES OF MOVING TO DUBLIN, IRELAND
