Another Great Week

Another great week! This one went by super fast again. This whole cycle has gone by really fast. Glorias's baptism was on the first Saturday of the cycle, and it feels like that was just the other day. Now we're here at the end of the cycle. Next Wednesday is transfer meeting, so I'll find out on Saturday if I will be staying in Poughkeepsie for another six weeks or moving to a new area. I really want to stay, but I have a feeling I'll be getting transferred. Elder Wagner and I have already been together for twelve weeks. It's pretty uncommon for a companionship to stay together for more than two cycles. We'll see what happens. No matter what happens I know I will feel that familiar calm assurance that the Lord has a divine purpose. I've felt that way for fourteen different transfer calls now. His will is ALWAYS much greater than my will. That principle is true for everything in life. He knows much better than we might think we do. Anyway, I have loved my time in Poughkeepsie. Four and a half months has felt much too short. We've continued to see amazing miracles among the Spanish people. I think I may have written about a little Mexican family a couple weeks ago, Oscar and Cristina and their daughter. I can't remember if I wrote about them or not. Anyway we found them tracting a couple months ago. We found them at the perfect time, right when they were ready to receive messengers of the Lord. Just a few days before we knocked on their door they had lost almost everything they owned in a fire in their apartment building. Sorry if you've already heard that story, but it has all just been amazing. They're so incredibly humble and open. They came to church for the first time on Sunday! Cristina also brought her sister who was there with her son. So we had a whole family of five at church! The ward was so excited to see them. Especially the Spanish people. There aren't too many active Spanish members. The regular sacrament meeting attendance is about 80 people with maybe 5-10 of those being Spanish. So they were so happy to see more Spanish people there. It may sound like a broken record, but I love the Spanish people. I love them so much! Well that's about it for now. Kind of a short email this week. I love you all! Have a great week! 

~Elder Allred 

Still working on Spanish

Hey family!

This week has been great! We've seen a lot of success with the Spanish people lately. The English work has been a little bit down. Since Joe and Gloria got baptized we haven't really had any progressing investigators in our English teaching pool. So we've been knocking a lot of doors with whatever extra time we have. We have some good potentials that have come from that effort, but nobody too solid yet. I do love the Spanish people. We met with a little Mexican family for the second item the other night, and they are just so awesome. It's a young couple named Oscar and Kristina, and they have a cute little five year old daughter named Katie. Elder Wagner and I found them tracting a few weeks ago. At the time they had just lost almost everything they owned due to a fire in their apartment building. They are are so humble and just have a wonderful spirit about them. I wish I could communicate with them. It's kind of frustrating sometimes to just have to sit in lessons and say nothing. I'm trying to learn a little bit, but I still can't really say much. I've gotten pretty good at saying prayers in Spanish, so I've been able to do that a little bit. I only really started practicing my Spanish about three weeks ago. I wish I would have started when I first came to this area. I bet I would be able to talk a little bit by now. Now I'll probably get transferred soon and I won't have too much ability by the time I leave. Oh well. I'm still so grateful that the Lord had allowed me to serve here with the wonderful Spanish people. We had a zone conference yesterday, which was awesome! Zone conference happens once every three or four months. It's a meeting where several zones get together and receive training from President Morgan, his assistants, and some other speakers. This time we got to hear from President Checketts. He is the Stake President of the Yorktown Stake. That was the first stake that I served in when I was in Newtown, so it was cool to see him again. He's a great leader and an exemplary priesthood man. He talked to us about being all the way focused on the mission and fully dedicating your time and effort to serving the Lord. He shared with us some stories from the mission he served in Los Angeles as a young man. I'm always amazed at how much people treasure times from their missions. Great men and women who have done so much good in their lives consider their missions their greatest accomplishments. I remember when I was at the MTC and Richard G Scott spoke to us in a devotional about how every good thing in his life is a direct result of the mission he served as a young man. This is an apostle, and he considers his mission the greatest service he has ever given. It's so awesome. A full time mission is a very special thing, and I'm so grateful that I have the opportunity to serve one. Well there's not too much else from this week. Everything is great. Just trying to enjoy every moment of the time I have left! I love you all, and have a wonderful week!

-Elder Allred