Goodbye, Dyker!

Hipster Park Slope

Hello hello hello! I hope everyone is just peachy keen today. My week has been absolutely insane (but I'm doing very well, no need to be concerned). First of all, I'm moving! I feel like I just got used to the Bay Ridge/Fort Hamilton area. We learned to jog frequently, I finally knew how to use public transportation to maneuver, we managed to convince people not to give us dinner appointments (well, it's a work in progress, but we managed to successfully evade them this week!). It's like in Up, where one is in such denial that they move their entire house to a new continent. I'll just have to pack up Dyker to go with me... Oh wait, Dyker *is* going with me. Or at least, the people who live there are.

Our stake just made huge changes to the ward boundaries, and now we will no longer be the Dyker Spanish sisters, but the Brooklyn Spanish sisters. They took Park Slope and Red Hook out of our area, and added in Bensonhurst and the rest of Brooklyn East of it essentially. Our chapel will now be the Bensonhurst chapel as well! They wanted to give the Spanish ward their own church building given how large the ward is, which is great. I think the ward is strong enough that most people will still decide to come even though the chapel is quite a bit further away from a lot of the members.

It complicates a lot of mission-related things though. Like the fact that we have t- oh I mean *get* to move to Bensonhurst (I'll miss the washer and dryer more than I can say). ;) Also, the Chino Elders and Sisters are staying in Dyker. Which means, essentially, we won't see them very often, and it also means that they won't be in our district (group of missionaries serving in the same area). I'll miss them quite a bit, I can't lie. :( Luckily, our Spanish Elderes are moving to Bensonhurst as well, though. So Elder Creager and I will be completing training in the same area. Also, this means we are almost certainly getting a new set of Spanish in our district - which I'm super excited about! (Why will we get a new set? Because there aren't allowed to be districts of a set of elders and sisters in the NY-NYCS mission. So to be a Spanish district we need another set.)

I played the organ for the first time last preparation day! It was an adventure, and it took some figuring out, but I'm ready to play to Bach Toccatas! (Note: this is a joke. I played Come Thou Fount, and Hermana Gourley can attest to how sketchy it was.) I feel like if I started playing the organ it would count as my daily workout. Feet, hands, arms, neck, eyes, sides as you reach out for notes, etc.

We planted fences in Prospect Park on Wednesday. Essentially what one does to plant a fence is take the seed (pole), hold on to it for dear life while the Elders pound it into the ground and stand up while
ones' hands are still shaking a bit and move on to the next one. Think: the Screaming Baby Mandrakes in Harry Potter.

English classes each week are hilarious. We essentially taught the word of wisdom this last week as we talked about health and food. We were talking about good foods and bad foods and a lady tried to
mention tea for the good side. Hermana Gourley said, "hmm some kinds of tea are good, some are bad, but we don't have any more room on the good side so we'll put it on the bad." The lady was terribly confused, to say the least.

The church building in Park Slope

We had deep clean this last week. I scrubbed floors as I sang "A Happy Working Song". Hermana Gourley laughed at me, and then we sang Disney songs together for the remainder of the time. Cleaning can be fun when it's done properly with Disney songs and cheerful attitudes!

An interesting and singular experience this week was carving out pineapples, freezing them, and heading to 7-11 to put Piña Colada and Mango Pineapple flavored Slurpees in the pineapples. It was delicious, and I highly recommend the experience. As we went into the kitchen in the church to consume them, we saw Elder Weisler opening a 7-lb can of tomato sauce for his spaghetti. Sister Gourley and I have been working on one jar for the last month and a half. Needless to say, the can was not finished, and our church has about 6 and a half pounds of tomato sauce for the next lucky pasta eater at the church. :)

My pineapple creation!

Slurpee Fun!

We attended an emergency training this week. It was wonderful information, and I understood almost all of it, even though it was conducted in Spanish. A lot of non-members went which gave us excellent missionary opportunities.

A less active who has been coming to church with us since my first week here got her first calling this week! I am so happy for her. She got emotional when we told her the bishop was going to call her, and it was a special moment for all of us. Also, we have a member who is planning on going through the temple next month, so we are teaching her the lessons. We can't wait to see her take that big step in her life, and know she will feel the spirit more powerfully in her life as she makes and keeps sacred covenants. Church was even more exciting since one of our investigators came. She has such a sweet spirit, and it was beautiful to have her.

Pretty Cathedrals in my area

Lastly, I got a package from my family this week! The little emails, messages, pictures, and items I get from my family make me so happy. <3

Life isn't always constant or easy. Changes and shifting circumstances may turn us upside down, but if we are founded on the rock of Jesus Christ we are promised we will survive and thrive "because of the rock upon which [w]e are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall." (Helaman 5:12) I testify that if we are anchored on the rock of Christ we will stand strong and will one day receive the glory and exaltation our conduct has merited.

Yours truly,
Hermana Ally Voss

Post Script:
Grammar Interest of the Week: go to Alma 8:19. Read the verse, and figure out the implication of the article usage. Read it aloud, if necessary. Report to me your findings if you wish at allison.voss@myldsmail.net and tell me if you are as in love with it as I am. <3

5th Avenue Parties