2-year old Jeter:)

Hey everyone! 

I can't believe I've already been in Harlem for two weeks! Time just goes too fast. In the beginning of my mission I set up a group email with all of the Juab guys that are on missions. This last week Spencer McPherson updated us on how he's doing down in Florida and mentioned that he's about four months from returning home. That is so crazy! After him, Jackson, and Jake Nielson go home within the next six months, it will just be that much faster as all of the other guys will start going home shortly after. My homecoming will be cool since I'm the last one. It will just be like a huge reunion because everyone will finally be back together again as RM's. Anyway, the work is good here in Harlem. We have tons of people to work with and that we're trying to get to baptism with. I'll highlight my favorite. There is a family named the Latimers that the missionaries have been teaching for a while. The dad is Justin and he's been less active for a long time. However, he has a son named CJ who I think is ten or eleven. CJ wants to get baptized and his dad wants to baptize him! So, we're trying to reactivate Justin and his wife and get CJ to baptism on July 19th. I'm so excited about this family. The coolest part is that they're huge Yankees fans. It's no surprise since they live in New York. I'm talking huge though. They have a two year old named Jeter! So, the first time I went over there I just talked to Justin about the Yankees for like twenty minutes. These are the exact kind of people I was hoping to teach out here! I can connect with them super well, and it won't be hard to get Justin to update me on how the boys are doing. Lol. More importantly I'm excited to see them continue to grow in the gospel. It will be so cool to watch Justin baptize his son. Other than that, we have lots of other people to teach. This has definitely been the busiest area of my mission. A lot of times we're actually running around from appointment to appointment instead of walking around trying to find people all day. It's so nice! It makes the days go by much faster! The ward is awesome too. There are a ton of young white families here. Everyone is super nice. Mom, you'll be happy to know that we get fed several times a week. So, you don't have to worry about me going without food lol. The other night, we ate at Sister Watson's. She is a member from Jamaica, and I had heard that she makes the best food. She made us rice and beans, and it was probably the best rice and beans I've ever had in my life. I miss the Bronx for sure. I had a lot of fun there, but I already love it here too. A couple cool things that I've noticed about Harlem is that Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X had a huge influence on this area. I didn't even know that. I guess I should have paid closer attention in history class. The church is actually on Malcolm X Blvd. And there are murals of Martin Luther King Jr all over the place. Another cool thing is the African influence. We pass this corner a lot of nights where there is a big group of people in African clothes and with drums and everything just dancing and playing African music. It's really cool. We're actually going down to a place on 116th Street today called the African street market to buy some cool stuff. Also, Columbia University is in my zone. We did a huge finding activity there last week. There is just so much here that I love. The one thing that I don't particularly love is the humidity and the heat. I know I always bring that back up, but it's so miserable sometimes. Enjoy the dry Utah heat for me! lol. Anyway, I'm just happy to be here. I love the area. I love the people. I love the work. Nothing to complain about here. Thanks for everything you all do to support me. I can feel your love and prayers from all the way on the other side of the nation. I love you all so much! Have a great week!

~Elder Allred 

Statue of Liberty

 Hey everyone! Harlem is so much fun! I think I was destined to live in the Hood. Haha. From the Bronx to Harlem! We live in a huge building on Broadway and 135th Street. It's just a couple avenues over from the Hudson. We run over to a football field every morning and work out right next to the river. It's so cool! Missionaries call our building "The Great and Spacious Building". I thought that was pretty funny. We estimated that there's a little over 4,000 people that live in our building alone. So, the building that I live in has almost as many people as the population of Nephi. Crazy! Elder Monson and I are having a lot of fun and the work is great. He's a great guy. I can already tell that I'll be sad when he has to go home in five weeks. 

Anyway, sorry this week's email is super short! We went to the Statue of Liberty today since Elder Monson is going home this cycle. One of the cool things that President Morgan lets us do in this mission. And since I am his companion I got to tag along! Everything is good here! I'm loving Harlem. It's getting super hot. And since we walk most places here, it's been tiring me out! The humidity is ridiculous! Haha. I'll try to write more next week. Have a great week everyone. Love you! 

~Elder Allred 

Harlem

~NEW COMPANION, ELDER MONSON~

 Hey everyone! So, I know that you all know today is transfer day. So, I'll tell you the news right here at the beginning. I was released as District Leader, and I've been transferred out of the Bronx to Harlem! I'm pretty sad to be leaving the Bronx. I've really loved it here. This last cycle was awesome. I got really close with a lot of the people I served with. Especially Elder Rydalch and the guys in our apartment. Elder Kohli will be going home tomorrow, and it was sad to say goodbye to him today. He's a good guy, and we've had some good times together. For his last district meeting, Elder Sevy and I put together a song for him. Since we all love country music, we decided to sing "You're Gonna Miss This" by Trace Adkins. We re-wrote the words for him and put it into a missionary version. It was really cool. I was way nervous to sing in front of the whole zone, but it turned out so well! Anyway, I don't have much time to email today, so this one isn't going to be very long. I'm excited to start working in Harlem! My new companion is named Elder Monson. He's from West Jordan. This will be his last cycle. He'll be going home at the next transfers in July. It should be a lot of fun. These next six weeks will fly by! Adjusting to the new area and watching Elder Monson prepare to go home. I'm excited to have more stories to tell you next week. Thanks for everything. Sorry for the short email this week. I love you! 

~OLMSTEAD ZONE WITH ELDER AND SISTER SNOW~ 

June 4

Hey everyone!

This week was awesome! We had our mission tour on Thursday with Elder Steven E Snow. He is a general authority in the quorum of the seventy who is currently serving as church historian. A lot of what he and his wife talked to the missionaries about was church history and personal history. They really stressed the importance of keeping journal entries, especially on a mission. Sister Snow said something that I really liked. She said that if you don't keep a journal on your mission, your children and grandchildren will only what you did. They'll know that you served a mission and where you served, but they won't know how you felt when you were there. They won't know you. Those weren't her exact words, but it was something to that effect. I really like that. I've been really dedicated to writing in my journal in the last ten months and have an entry for every single day of my mission. My entire mission story will be able to be read long after I leave this earth. My posterity will be able to know who I was and what I experienced and felt on my mission. Elder Snow also came to the Westchester, New York stake conference. This stake includes the Bronx wards and wards in New Rochelle, Scarsdale and Yonkers. It was awesome to see him speak three separate times. The stake that I am serving in just got reorganized, which is actually why Elder Snow was here. It was cool to see that process, because I've never seen it before. Since Elder Snow was on special assignment to call a new stake president here, he had a junior companion with him, Elder Kunz. Elder Kunz was just called to be an area seventy in the April General Conference. So, we got to hear him speak on Saturday and Sunday as well. Along with them, we heard from President and Sister Morgan each a couple of times. Talk about a spiritually uplifting weekend. Hearing talks from stake presidents, our mission president, general authorities and all of their wives. That's a lot of powerful talks packed into one weekend. It was awesome! I definitely filled my spiritual canteen this weekend. Now it's about taking everything that I learned and using it. You can listen to talks and receive instruction all day, but if you don't act on what you learn it doesn't mean too much. Besides that, the week was good. We didn't get the opportunity to teach too much this week, but that just happens sometimes. We're working our hardest! Some weeks are just slower than others. We did make contact with quite a few people and and got ourselves out there. We tried a new finding technique that was really cool. We went out on Saturday and played street ball at Bronx park. Nobody expected a few white guys to do much, but we killed it. We surprised everyone at how well we can play basketball and that got us talking to people. If nothing else, we got our faces out there and people know who we are now. Plus, it showed people that we're not just weird guys who walk around in white shirts and ties but that we're normal people. I'm excited to have more opportunities like this as the weather warms up. I have a funny story for  all of you. So, every Tuesday night we go to Baskin Robbins/Dunkin Donuts and get ice cream. Last night we were there and all of a sudden a fire truck pulls up outside with sirens blaring. Turns out they were just there because a guy was drunk outside and hit his head on the side of the building. That's not the funny part, though. The funny part is when the truck pulled up, five or six guys stepped out. Rather than checking out the scene and helping, one of the firemen walked right into DD and bought himself a donut. Haha! That's classic New York City fireman for ya. lol. It was super funny. Anyway, nothing else too big going on. Just getting ready for transfers next Wednesday. We'll find out Saturday night whether I will be staying here or leaving. So, you'll all know by next Wednesday! Thanks for everything guys. I love you and miss you!! 

~Elder Allred