Letter #39: 3rd of July

hello, hello! so basically all im going to talk about is our 3rd of july. so every year boston has this incredible and huge firework show right on the river. President Packard told us that we could go to a show and to get back as quickly as we could, but that curfew didnt apply. he also said to stay within our stake boundaries but we got special permission to be able to go into boston! because we're not that far from it. so obviously the show was supposed to be on the 4th, but weather warning were saying that a hurricane was coming and the worst of it would be that night, so they switched it to the day before.

anyways, so thursday got here and it was a wicked humid day here in the boston area. its like being in the grips of death i tell yah. so we went to the train station to head into boston, but the schedule was weird because of the holiday weekend and so we ended up waiting there for an entire hour until the train came and we literally could have died. we got to talk to a man who was headed to england though and that was cool.

so then the glorious train with air conditioning showed up and we rode it into boston! we got off and headed straight for mike's pastries so that sister franics could experience it. i love showing her around boston! i love boston :) so we did that and then we headed over to haymarket station to meet up with sister cope and sister gomez. i have a brace thing on my ankle because i sprained it a couple of weeks ago so a guy with a bike and a carriage attached to the back offered us a ride for only 5 bucks. so we took him up on that offer and it was fun to be pulled around boston for a while! once we found the other sisters we wandered around one of the main restaurant streets for a while trying to find something that the gomester could eat. because she is dairy and gluten free by choice (who does that??). we we ended up at this yogurt place for us and then went to 7/11 for her to get fresh fruit. 

then we hopped on the T again and headed to the firework show! we sat on a blanket and played with uno cards and met up with all of the boston missionaries. the cambridge missionaries were on the other side of the river.

the show started and it was SO COOL! we stood up and moved to get closer and took pictures and loved it. The music goes along with the fireworks. It ended kinda earlier than we expected and we were kinda confused. Then a cop got on the intercom and announced that everyone needed to evacuate immediately. We started leaving and walked past another pair of cops and heard them say "gotta get out quick. the hurricane will be here in half an hour." so the we started walking a little quicker.

We hadnt gone more than 2 minutes though when i heard a huge gush of wind and looked back. I  yelled at the other sisters to look too and we could see coming straight at us from the river whirlwind of rain. and it didnt take long to hit us. People started running and screaming and we were immediately drenched. People ran to get under cover and we kept walking to get to the train station so that we didnt miss it. who knew id get to go swimming on my mission! it was crazy. i didnt even describe it well but it was crazy.

we got back to the train station and both our trains were leaving in 3 minutes. so we said quick goodbyes to the other sister. i hugged sister cope and kissed sister gomez on the head (praying that thats not the last time i see her since she leaves in a few weeks) and we ran to catch our train! thankfully we made it and at our ending station a couple from our ward were there to pick us up and drive us home. the storm had calmed down by then.

so that was our adventurous 3rd of July! the 4th we had zone meeting for most of the day. i volunteered sister hileman to do the musical number and she sang "abide with me tis eventide" and i videotaped her like the proud daughter i am! we're with her and sister lewis today up in nashua, NH.

Other stuff going on thats more missionary related haha his that Peter got into senior housing and is getting all sobered up and looks better than ever! and Andrea came to church for the first time in an month and was totally glowing! The gospel changes lives! We also got a new investigator! her name is caitlyn and she has been through really hard things and we love her. she is one of rita's barn girls. and we had a stellar lesson with our perfect natalie and she taught us the plan of salvation while we sat on a dock and ate ice cream! gotta love that missionary life :) 

i love you all!! 

-Sister Tantillo

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