Sister Alyssa Walecki in New York: Locked In

I've got a good story this week, its really long and I'm not sure if it'll make much sense but at one point yesterday there were 6 NYPD officers outside our door. Hahah I'll start from the beginning though..

Our roommates have church at 9am so they went to leave and tried to unlock the door & the deadbolt lock would move back and forth but was still stuck locked. We didn't have the phone number for our super, so I climbed out the bedroom window on to the fire escape to see if we could get out that way and the ladder was so rusted it didn't budge. So I stopped a young kid walking his dog and asked if he would be willing to go around to the front of the building and bring back the Supers number. He eventually made his way back, gave us a number (which ended up being wrong) and we dropped down some chocolate and a Restoration pamphlet to thank him.

We had called a senior couple, the Larsen's and she had found our super's phone number so we called him and he said he could come but it would be about an hour. Church had already started by now. So he came, tried to unlock the door and no success. He gave us a number for the locksmith. We called the locksmith, he said he could come around 11 or 12 because it was "his day off and Sunday, so people are going to church." So we waited and waited. Finally around 6pm he finally came. He tried for about 30min and couldn't get it so he went to ask the neighbors if he could go through their apartment to the fire escape to climb in through our window but he didn't speak English very well so I don't think they understood what he was asking. He said there was nothing else he could do from outside the apartment and he left.

About 10 minutes later we get a knock at the door, answer it-through the door and they're like "NYPD police". Apparently someone had called the cops because of a suspicious person- we're assuming the locksmith. Anyway, we told them we couldn't open the door, explained the situation and they weren't too happy that the super and locksmith just left us locked in for the night. So they knocked on the neighbors door, of course he let them right in they came around to the fire escape and we talked to them through the window. He said the best thing to do would be to call the locksmith back and they could get him into and through an apartment to reach the fire escape. So we had police stand outside our door for over an hour while we waited for the locksmith to come back. Finally he came, and we got the door unlocked around 9:30pm. The police and locksmith left and we were left with a huge hole in the door. hahah...my whole mission I always say there are no coincidences, and everything happens for a reason. But I have 0 idea why yesterday happened. But Heavenly Father is always looking out for us and we are safe :) So there you have it- the day 4 sister missionaries were locked INSIDE of their apartment.

On Tuesday there was supposed to be a huge blizzard but it didn't turn out to be as bad as they thought so we went out, luckily we had lots of appointments to stay warm that day! On Wednesday afternoon we found these giant shovels at the church and then walked around our area looking for people who were trying to dig their parked cars out of the snow and we helped them. So if you need to know all the secrets of how to "properly dig a car out of the snow in the most efficient way as to not waste your efforts"- I now know all the secrets. We helped a lady and she told us the "science" of it all. Fascinating actually. I love how service softens people's hearts and helps them to see that we really are just normal people!

We read a talk this week- talks are my very favorite. Its called All Things Work Together for Good by James B. Martino. He talked about how we endure things in life and don't always understand why but at the end I loved what he said, "As we pass through the trials of life, let us keep an eternal perspective, let us not complain, let us become even more prayerful, let us serve others, and let us forgive one another. As we do this, “all things [will] work together for good to [us] that love God.” I think that remembering to have an eternal perspective can be SO hard sometimes. Especially in the midst of trials but as we remember that perspective and remember that our Heavenly Father is always there for us if we just reach out, we are able to find happiness and peace even in the hardest of times. I know that's true!

I hope you all have a lovely week.

xoxo Sister Walecki