El Libro de Mormon es verdad. Es verdad.

 Hey everyone! Life is good here in the Bronx. We're only two weeks away from another transfer. Typically you will stay in an area for no more than three or four cycles. Since I've already been here for three, the possibility of me leaving is getting pretty high. You never know though. My trainer was in Newtown for six cycles. I kind of hope to stay for one more. I love the Bronx so much! That would mean that half of my mission would be spent in just two areas. I guess only time will tell. I'll find out next Saturday whether I will be transferring or not. For now, I'm just trying to enjoy the last couple weeks of this cycle. The other missionaries that I'm working with are awesome. We have a lot of fun, especially with the guys that are in the apartment that I live in. I've become really good friends with Elder Kohli. I'll be really sad to see him go home. That's just how it works I guess. Before you know it, that will be me scrambling in my last two weeks of full time service. 

I went to a meeting in Scarsdale this week called Mission Leadership Council (MLC). That's once a month, and usually zone leaders and Sister Training Leaders go to receive instruction from President Morgan and the APs on how they want the mission to be led. Two or three times  a year, the District Leaders are invited as well, and this month just happened to be one of those times. They will usually also introduce any big announcements for what's coming up in the mission. They talked about details for a mission tour that we are having tomorrow and Friday. A mission tour is where a General Authority comes and stays in the mission home and speaks to all of the missionaries. This usually happens once a year for the mission. This year , Elder Steven E Snow will be visiting our mission. So, I will spend most of the day tomorrow in Manhattan at the temple for that meeting. Then on Saturday and Sunday, Elder Snow and President Morgan will attend the Westchester stake conference, which is the stake that the Bronx wards are in. Our Stake President, President Taylor, is moving back to Utah, so he will be released and the stake will be getting reorganized. I'm really excited for stake conference, because it will be held at the Yorktown chapel in Ossining. It will take me back to my days of serving up there. The other big announcement is even more exciting. President Morgan is arranging for the whole mission to go to the Yankees vs Rays game on July 2nd!!! I was going to email him soon to try and get permission, but now everyone is going! Do I not have the coolest mission in the world? As hard as it is to be a missionary, I almost feel like I'm on vacation sometimes. President Morgan lets us do some really cool things. So, be watching the game July 2nd to see about 250 white shirts and ties. the Lord knows me so well, and He's pretty darn good to me. I have one cool story before I wrap it up. When I got back from MLC, I was with Elder Hausenfluck, because he is the other District Leader in our zone. He's a Spanish speaking missionary, so we went to some Spanish appointments. I've picked up a little bit of Spanish here but not a whole lot. So, I was pretty much just sitting there not understanding the conversation. I tried to pick up a few words as he was teaching one of their investigators. From what I could gather, I knew they were talking about the Book of Mormon. I had the strongest prompting from the Spirit that I needed to speak up and say something. So, I pulled what I could from my Spanish vocabulary of about twenty words and was able to utter my testimony of the Book of Mormon. I said "Yo tengo fe en El Libro de Mormon. El Libro de Mormon es verdad. Es verdad." Which translates to I have faith in the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon is true. It's true." That was one of the most powerful experiences I've had on my mission. Listen to promptings from the Spirit. They will always touch someone. You or someone else. Following those promptings is so important and will always increase your spirituality. I love feeling the Spirit and being guided in the Lord's work by His hand. It really is an incredible thing to be a part of. Life is good! I'm happy and healthy and bracing myself for the long, hot, and humid summer! Love you guys! Have a great week! 

~ Elder Allred 

..just a few days with Zack?....

*****Note from Mom: I usually just put the mass email on the blog, but this week I got a bonus email later in the afternoon of a picture Elder Allred took at the Bronx Zoo today. LOVE IT:)*****

Hey everyone! 

This week was probably one of my favorite of my whole mission yet. We had some cool experiences with teaching people. Last week, we met this guy named Ian. We were walking home one night, and he actually stopped us to talk to us. He's from Florida and staying here in the Bronx for a little while selling door to door for Vivint. He wanted to talk, because he was curious about what we do to get into people's houses. We ended up talking to him for about an hour about what we do and what we believe. He didn't give us his number or anything but he took our card. We just assumed we'd never see him again . It was a good surprise when we ran into him again on Saturday. He was sitting out in front of a Catholic Church that's right  down the street from ours. SO we stopped to say hi and talk a little bit. He was kinda discouraged because he didn't have very much luck selling that day, so it made him happy to see some friendly faces. We were actually headed to the church to do a Bible study, and he came with us. Nobody else showed up, so it was just us and him. We taught him about the Plan of Salvation. He wasn't too interested in actually committing to anything. He said he just wanted to learn more about our church so that he could be less ignorant. In any case, I felt the Spirit strongly as we were talking to him. I don't know if we'll ever see Ian again. He's a young guy though. I think he will reach a point one day where he is seriously looking back on his life and he'll wonder what his purpose is. He will think back to when he met the Mormon missionaries in the Bronx. I hope he will choose to follow the good feeling he gets from the Spirit on that day. Until then, another solid seed has been planted. So much of missionary work is just that: planting seeds in hopes that one day they will grow into something more. You hear that all the time, but I've seen so much truth to that little analogy in the past nine months. We also found a new less active member this week. He talked to us about the mission he served in Vegas. He's going through a really tough time right now. He grew up in the Bronx, lived in Utah and Idaho after his mission for nine or ten years, and just moved back because he got a divorce. Hopefully we will be able to help him. We also started teaching this Jamaican lady named Alicia and her daughter. I have high hopes for them. We just had so much fun this week. It was awesome to have Elder Rydalch's little brother, Beau, out here with us. You guys probably saw the pictures on facebook. He flew out Thursday night and stayed all the way through Monday morning. It was so cool to watch them be reunited. The bond between brothers is one that can't really be described with words. The whole weekend I was just thinking about how cool it would be if I could spend just a few days with Zack. Then I realized on Monday morning when Beau left just how hard it would be to say goodbye again for a little over two years. Elder Rydalch gets home in February of next year, and Beau won't get home from his mission in Ecuador until June of 2016. Anyway, it was a fun weekend. We had some great missionary opportunities to get Beau excited, as well as just some good normal fun. It's so cool that President Morgan allows stuff like this to happen. I am incredibly blessed to be in this mission. It really is the best mission in the whole world. Everyone will tell you that about wherever they served. That's because the Lord knows exactly where we each need to be, and I need to be here in New York New York North. Life is good. I still miss you guys like crazy. I think I'm kinda in that stage where it feels like I'll never come home. I'm sure that will pass in a couple months when I hit my year mark. I love you guys so much. Have a great week!

Love, Elder Allred

May 14

Skyping with everyone was so awesome! It was great to see you all and talk for a little bit. I really wish that we had that opportunity more often than twice a year. We're blessed with what we have though. From what I've heard, a lot of other missions are only allowed a thirty minute phone call. The Church actually wanted President Morgan to go down to thirty minutes too, but he didn't let it happen. He wanted to make sure that we had a lot of time. He takes really good care of us and makes sure that we get to do a lot of cool things. I really look up to that man and admire him for the way he leads this mission. Besides that, this week has been great. We've been teaching this guy named Eddy for a couple of weeks now. He is from Haiti and has been in the states for about twenty years. The way he was found is that a couple of sister missionaries just started talking to him on the subway down in Manhattan. He told them he had met with missionaries before when he was in Haiti and that he would be interested in meeting again. I may have already told you all of that, so if I did I'm sorry. Anyway, when we first met with him he said he had already been baptized. Come to find out this week, he was baptized into another church. He thought that when the Priesthood was restored again to the earth, that meant that every church had the authority. So, he was pretty disappointed when he found out that he needs to be baptized again. I was actually on split, so I wasn't at that lesson. Elder Rydalch said that Eddy was actually a little bit angry about it. Luckily he came to church with us still and we'll be meeting with him on Friday. Hopefully all will go well there, and he will have the desire to be baptized and active in the gospel. Being a district leader is so great! I'm loving it. My first training on Monday went really well. I was way nervous, but it turned out well. Everyone in the district is super supportive. It's a blessing to have these great missionaries here to help me with my leadership responsibilities. I really think that I'm getting way more from them than I could possibly give in return. I'm excited for this coming week. Elder Rydalch's little brother is coming to stay with us for a few days. He just got his mission call to Ecuador, and President Morgan is letting him come here before he goes. It should be way fun! I hope you all have a great week. I miss you like crazy. I love you so much! 

~Elder Allred 

May 7 ...grocery shopping in the heart of Harlem

Hey everyone! I'm a bit late. We went to Harlem today and got groceries at Costco. It was quite the adventure to take all of the food from Harlem back to the Bronx. Whatever you have to do to eat cheaper is worth it here! Haha. Anyway, I don't have a whole lot of time, so the mass email is going to be really short today. I'm going to try to do some individual emails instead. Quick update though. Things are great. The new district leader calling is going great! I love it so much, and I'm able to interact with each companionship a lot more. I'm just happy to have the chance to serve more people more fully. Usually each Monday I would give a training to the district, but since this week was the first Monday of the month, the zone leaders did it. Next week I'll be up though. I'm kinda nervous, but I know that opportunity  to teach the other missionaries each week will help me learn so much more! The work is good. Our mission has a goal to baptize 100 people in the month of May. I was talking to the AP, Elder Taylor, and he said we're already at 28! I think we will reach it. Elder Rydalch and I are hoping to set a baptismal date this week with someone. We've both been a lot more determined lately to work hard and have talked to a lot more people. We taught five lessons on Monday alone. Other than that, things are great! Nothing too big to report on. I can't wait to see everyone for Skype on Sunday. Love you guys! 

~Elder Allred