The BRONX!

I was gonna save this part for the end of the email.... but I just can't wait to say it. I'm getting transferred to......drumroll please.....the Bronx!!! I'll be heading down today. Usually for transfers we meet at the chapel in Ossining, NY, which is about a forty five minute drive from here. Then when we get there, those who are going from upstate to the city get driven to their new areas. But today we woke up with about a foot of snow, and now we're getting some nice freezing rain to top it off. So, to avoid car accidents, we won't be driving to transfers. We're waiting to hear from our AP's what is going to happen. We might end up just taking the trains to our areas, or we might just wait for the weather to pass and do transfers tomorrow. I bet President Morgan and the AP's are pretty stressed right now trying to figure out how to move 250 missionaries to where they need to be. Anyway, the point is, I'll be going down to the Bronx sometime in the near future.  I am so excited!!! I finally get to experience living in the city. I'll be working in the Olmstead zone, which is one of two zones in the Bronx. I'll be living right next to the Bronx Zoo. My companion is named Elder Hansen, and I have heard lots of good things about him. One of my zone leaders is Elder Taylor. He is the guy who trained my trainer, Elder Kroff, so that will be lots of fun! I'm so sad to be leaving Newtown. I have experienced so much here, and I have gone through a lot. I have grown so much in the last five and a half months that I have lived in this area. It will be a crazy transition, because Newtown is all I've known of my mission. This has really become my home. Plus I just love the people here so much. It was so tough to say goodbye to people. I have shed quite a few tears in the past few days as I have prepared to leave. It's all good though. As sad as it is to be moving on, it's super exciting at the same time! I'll finally be where I pictured myself going when I opened that call to New York City. I had a pretty cool opportunity this week. Elder Savage's flight was scheduled to leave for India on Monday. We were supposed to drive him down to Scarsdale and drop him off at the mission home. The original plan was that our roommates, Elder Plouzek and Nielson, would come with us and I would just ride back to Newtown with them, but it was a really snowy day that day. President Morgan didn't us driving the car. So, what he had us do is just take the train down so that Elder Savage made his flight in time. We got to the mission home in the afternoon and visited with Sister Morgan and the AP's for a little bit until President Morgan got home. Then they took us out to dinner at a pizza place in Scarsdale. It was a really cool place. Authentic brick oven, New York style pizza. It was super neat to watch them make the pizzas. They have a huge brick oven that they heat with coals. When they cook a pizza, they have to put it all the way in the back, so they use this huge wooden spatula thing that's like six feet long to put them in. You guys have probably seen something like this before, but it was just super cool! Plus we got to have dinner with the AP's, President, Sister Morgan, and their son Ryan. That's an opportunity not too many missionaries get. It was great to have some more personal time with President Morgan and his family and get to know them a little better. They are such wonderful people. I already love them so much. After dinner, Elder Savage rode with President to JFK to fly out. I spent the night with the AP's, Elder Passmore and Kerr. That was a real cool opportunity too. They treated me really well, and I had a ton of fun with them. Yesterday morning I went with them to pick up some new cars for the mission. We went out of the mission into Queens so that was super cool! So yeah, that was my big adventure for the week. Now I'm just looking forward to going to the Bronx! Love you all so much. Have a great week and remember that God loves you!!! 

~Elder Allred