sister sister

So I'm sure you all can guess what happened. The worst day of my mission so far :( I am being transferred. We got our packing calls on Saturday and when they said sister standage packing my heart sank and I cried all the tears my body had. I was so sad to leave this place they are quite literally family to me. But I'll be back I can feel it.  But this week was probably the coolest one ever!! Also sorry my email last week didnt send. I can't send group ones from my phone apparently?! Ya idk why. But anyways I hope you read both of these. Well for Christmas eve all of us missionaries got to spend the day with the McMullins and Copelands two of the sweetest families here! We went into town and handed our cards, cookies and water. Cause no one here needs hats and gloves! Haha but that was really cool and also really funny cause so many people said no to free water.. I dont think I've ever done that. But after we had dinner and played games. It was fun having all of us there...

ok i have to explain the pictures i forgot what ones i added.. the one of me outside the flat is us cleaning out the cutters and leaves... i had a thick layer of dirt it was so nasty and so visible.  50 degrees.. ya I am not sure how i'm alive The ties we made the elders The cutest dog at the ladies house we had dinner with on Saturday Saturday morning the same lady we had dinner with had us come over and she bought us hot chocolate.. it was hot (felt hotter than 28) but we were in the sun drinking hot chocolate.. christmas here is so weird.  our christmas tree full of random gifts from the elders. they always find weird things on the ground and gave them to us we had a jar of them and decided to make them into ornaments.. also our gifts from the mission president and wife (not really them but the members) are keeping our tree alive ;) just kidding.  the group one is the goodbye party for the Americans going back to school!! it was the funnest thing!  ok now i'm done. love you ...

So this week wasn't my favorite week... on tuesday the cute 10 year old we are teaching that has the strongest testimony and desire for the gospel in her life dropped us. well her parents dropped us. Makayla cried when they told her that we couldn't come see her anymore. So we showed up on Tuesday and we were chatting for a second then Michelle the mom says to us, "yeah this will be the last time you visit makayla.." i just about started crying, she was the most solid out of anyone we are teaching at the moment. my heart broke.  nothing else really crazy happened except early in the week, we got a message from a potential and she said, hey sisters i want to see you on friday at noon.. not going to lie we thought she wasn't actually going to be home or anything, but we went on friday at noon and she was home and we had such a great lesson. She told us she had quit smoking and drinking just like that cause she wanted to. she didn't want to live that life anymore...

before i even start, if you don't read the rest of it google PARRTJIMA Alice Springs thats all i ask of you so sadly I am getting transferred.. i am going to THE ALICE SPRINGS SISTERS AREA AGAIN!  President knows me so well that I don't need to leave this place ever!! Sister Auatabu and i are both still here, Elder Ostraff and Mattie are still zone leaders, but Elder Wharekura (who just finished training) is our new district leader and is training!! I think he is kind of freaked out but he is a great missionary! Funny and sad news though Tennant Creek closed, last transfer Bush closed so our district/zone is down to 6 missionaries. Us sisters the Zone leaders, the district leader and his comp. its SO SMALL. But it's so good! I love it so much here and am excited to be here another 6 weeks! Crazy thing is... next transfer is Christmas (So start sending all your christmas packages now ;) ) jokes. but time has flown here on the mission! It's so incredible. I am almost at 6...

Really I hate email captions, they are the worst and always so weird so sorry mine are always gonna be terrible.  This week was funny though a lot of weird but funny things happened.  Tuesday was beginning to end the funniest day of my mission it started off with the elders calling us and asking, "Sister Standage what did you do when you got bit by a dog?" "Went to the Smiths" "Oh ok" "Why did someone get bitten by a dog?" "Yeah Elder Mattie did" "Oh true, were you on Saltbush?" "YEAH how'd you know?" "haha that's same dog that bit me!" Dear any future missionaries in the Australia Adelaide mission that are blessed enough to serve in Alice Springs DO NOT KNOCK DOOR 8A ON SALTBUSH COURT. unless the dog is inside. It does look friendly but its not and will bite you! Then we were following up with some people and ran into a family that lived in Fiji (where Sister Auatabu grew up), one man drove up and ...

This week was wild. but here are a few highlights. Monday we were visiting Irene, she said a million times, "You are never here long enough" and man is she right. I hope to stay in Alice Springs forever. So if I ever hear my name not in Alice Springs Sisters on the transfer call I will call President up and put Irene on the phone.. ;) just kidding I know God calls us to the places we are supposed to go to, but I also know God will never want me to leave Alice Springs! Tuesday was so so sad. Sister Starling left.. I bawled. I love her and she really did teach me so many things and she is my second companion that I have killed.. But she had work to do in Adelaide and she is prime marriage age so she needs to go to BYU this fall to find her husband ;) But I was now training Sister sekona, so we went town finding for a little bit and ran into the woman. She is from Annabella, which is in South Australia, which is a long ways away for y'all who don't know. But she was in A...

ok so thats sister starlings email caption for this week because we got word of an emergency transfer... she is going down to Adelaide 1 week early then on the she goes home.. So... I am now a senior companion and my new companion is Sister Sekona, Sister starling and sister sekona overlap in the airport for about 20 minutes tomorrow afternoon. Its so sad. Sister Starling and I thought we had a whole extra week together. But on Saturday President was here and we had extra interviews and gave us the news... really put an anchor in our otherwise so incredible best day of my mission day. but i cant jump around. back to last week. our pday was the district p day and that was the best. we went to the desert park but that wasn't even the good part we just got to hang out with the elders. there are no other sisters here. And honestly thats the best thing ever, these elders are actually pretty cool and only sometimes very annoying. ;) But it was awesome. I love Alice Springs. We had zone c...