Tyler and Taylor

As you all know, today is transfers. Sadly my time in Poughkeepsie has come to an end. I wish that were an April fools joke. Poughkeepsie is an amazing place. I remember when I received my mission call and I looked at the mission boundaries online. Something about Poughkeepsie was so interesting to me. I remember just looking up pictures and information and wondering if I would serve here. I think that may have been the Lord preparing me for these past eighteen weeks. Poughkeepsie will always hold a very special place in my heart. I have come to know a loving God here more than I've ever known Him before. I have been a witness to incredible miracles, and it is absolutely undeniable that the Lord's hand was the main functioning mechanism in those miracles. What made Poughkeepsie so special was the people. The people here are amazing. English and Spanish. I will be eternally grateful for the opportunity that I had to serve among the Spanish people. I love them so much. I've learned so much about them. I couldn't really speak to them too much, but that didn't matter. What mattered was the Spirit that I felt as I was among them. The Holy Ghost speaks in a universal language that brings all people together. I will miss Poughkeepsie so much, and I'm really down about leaving. It's hard to say goodbye to a people and a place as special as these. I know, however that the Lord has a wise purpose in all things. He no longer needs me to be in Poughkeepsie. I have done what He needed me to do here, and I have personally progressed in the way He needed me to. Now He needs me in South Manhattan. Back to the city. There is a possibility that this will be the last area that I serve in on my mission. I only have three cycles left. It's very untypical that you serve in an area for only one cycle, so I think I will for sure be there for two. Unless I get transferred somewhere else for my final six weeks, I will end my mission in Manhattan. This will be a much different area than any that I've served in. I served in the city before, but I was in the Bronx and Harlem. Much different worlds than the wealthy part of the island at the bottom. The ward that I will be serving in is a young single adult ward. I've come to love the family wards that I've served in so much. This will be a wonderful experience for me. I'm excited to see what the Lord has in store for me and the people there. I almost forgot to mention my companion's name. Elder Coburn. I'm pretty sure Elder Coburn is from Manti, but I might be wrong about that. I'll know for sure soon enough. I haven't really served around him too much, but fro, what I hear he is a great missionary. I think that he and I will have a lot in common and will work great together. Change is good. It can be uncomfortable and can make us stretch, but it is good. I'm excited. I'm also incredibly excited for general conference this weekend! It will be my last general conference as a full time missionary. I can't wait to receive the revelation that the Lord has in store for me. If I don't email you back personally today, I apologize. Today is going to be a busy busy day, going from the very top of the mission in Poughkeepsie to the very bottom of the mission. I'll try to have more time to email next week. I love you all and have a very Happy Easter!!

-Elder Allred

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 

Discipleship

Picture from Joe's Baptism

Hola Familia!

My Spanish is getting pretty good huh? Just kidding. I still can't really speak Spanish, but I think it's getting a little bit better every week. I said the orar (prayer) in a Spanish lesson last night, and it was easily the best prayer that I've said. It seemed to flow really well, and everything that I wanted to say came out smoothly. It was awesome. The lesson was with a part member family, the Santos. Mom and dad are members of the church but haven't been active for a few years. They have three adorable kids that haven't been baptized. Their mom doesn't want to force them into being baptized and has left the decision up to them. The two daughters are 8 and 10, and the son is 7. Since their parents don't go to church their primary teacher has been picking them up faithfully every week. They love going to church and are super involved in the primary. So the whole time I've been here we've been trying to help those two daughters commit to a date for baptism. They're so smart and are more than ready to take the big step. Well last night we had that primary teacher go to the lesson with us. She's actually moving out of the ward this summer and wants to see the girls be baptized before she leaves. The Spirit in the lesson was incredibly strong, and I just felt so good. As we talked to them about baptism again they seemed closer to committing than they ever have yet. They still wouldn't commit to a date last night, but they said they would think and pray about it this week and tell us the date when we come over next week. I love them so much. I've realized lately even more how important charity is in doing the Lord's work. It's amazing what pure love for the people can do. That's why the Savior was so powerful during His earthly ministry. He had absolute perfect charity for the people. We should look to Him as our exemplar in everything that we do. Another thing I've been thinking about lately is discipleship. It's something that Elder Allen and Elder Evans talked to us about when they visited our mission a few weeks ago. As my mission draws closer to its end I've found myself pondering on what kind of a servant I will be when I am no longer privileged to literally wear the Savior's name on a name tag on my chest. I've worried that as a return missionary I won't feel nearly as productive or effective as I do now. When the general authorities spoke to us about discipleship it opened my eyes to a whole new concept that I hadn't been considering. Discipleship begins the day we are baptized and make our first covenant to serve the Lord. It continues as we grow. My responsibility to be a disciple of Christ has lasted through high school and college and now continues on my mission. Why would it end when I get released as a full time missionary? Any member of the church anywhere (missionary or not) has a sacred responsibility to be a disciple. It gives me comfort to know that I will continue to serve Him. In my callings in the church, as a husband and father one day. I will be a disciple of Christ. Even in the classroom and the work field I will be a disciple of Christ. In the social world I will be a disciple of Christ. I can be a disciple everywhere. I love that. I've been thinking about it a lot. Elder Evans said something in our meeting that I loved. He said that our missions are the time that we've been given to prepare to be return missionaries. As I become a disciple in the mission field, I am preparing myself to be a disciple in my return missionary years. This principle of discipleship has changed my entire life. It's given me the perspective that I need that I didn't have before. I could talk all day about what I've been learning these past few weeks, but I think I'll leave it at that. This gospel is amazing. My mission is amazing. And all of you are amazing! I love you all so much. Have a fantastic week!

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

5 Months to Go!!

Hello family! Wasn't it just barely Wednesday? This week was so packed with different things that it all just went by in a big blur without me even knowing what day of the week it was. My weeks are falling off the calendar faster than I can keep up with them. I hope the time is flying for you the way it is for me. If it were up to me I would crank the speed setting down a notch or two. My fear is that my last five months will feel more like five weeks. When talking about missionaries wanting to  extend the time in their mission, I've heard President Morgan say this, "You shouldn't be asking for more time. What you should be asking for is more service." That hit me. I shoulndn't be wanting more months in my mission. What I should be wanting is more opportunities to serve in the five months that I have left. I like that perspective. Anyway, it was a wonderful week! We started with a mission conference that was held on Thursday down in the chapel at the temple. We woke up extra early to catch a seven o clock train down to Manhattan. The conference was great! Two general authorities, Elder David Evans and Elder Stephen Allen, came to teach and train us. They are both spiritual powerhouses. Elder Evans is currently serving as the executive director of the missionary department, and Elder Allen is the managing director of the missionary department. They are at the very top of missionary work in our church. They work very closely with Elder Bednar and Elder Nelson to direct the missionary efforts worldwide. I felt super lucky to have the opportunity to have some time with them. I'll remember that meeting for years and years to come. The topic of their training had to do with online proselyting. After using online proselyting for a couple years now, the church has evaluated how it has been used and is ready for a "reset". They talked to us about ways we can more effectively use the internet in our proselyting efforts. So for the next few months we will be retraining and relearning how to use our iPads, Facebook and the other online proselyting tools that we've been given. I think this will be a wonderful time to learn and grow and progress the Lord's work further in our mission. Very uplifting and edifying meeting. The next highlight was on Saturday. Another one of our investigators, Gloria, got baptized! I'm so happy for her. She has been taking lessons with missionaries for well over a year and attending church every Sunday for several months. Our other recent convert, Joe, congratulated her and told her he thought she was already a member. There were a few other members that thought that too. It's true. She's so well integrated into the ward now, you would have thought she had already been baptized. I'm grateful that she finally made the decision to be baptized! There are so many people that are happy for her as well. Many missionaries before me worked so hard to help her progress in the gospel. There were five or six RM's skyping in to watch the baptism. It's amazing to be part of this great work. As you work to help your investigators progress, you can be assured that the missionaries after you and the members of the ward continue to take care of them. I feel blessed that I was chosen as one of the missionaries to be in this area when she finally became a member of the church. She's awesome, and I look forward to another lifelong sister in the gospel. The final highlight of the week was on Sunday. Joe received the priesthood a few weeks ago. He's a priest, which means he has the authority to bless the sacrament. He was finally able to do that for the first time on Sunday, and it was such a sweet experience for me to be there in church to see that moment in his progression in the church. I was nearly moved to tears as I watched him break the bread. I was reminded of the first time I blessed the sacrament a few years ago when I was sixteen. Now I was watching him begin the wonderful journey that I've had as a priesthood holder in the church. One day he will be a Melchizedek priesthood holder and bless the lives of his family and members of his ward as he serves as a priesthood holding man. He's just such a good person. I'm grateful that he is my friend. Being a missionary is amazing. It's difficult but so worth it. Opportunities like the ones I have described today are some of the most beautiful moments that I'll ever have in my life. I love you all. Hope you have a wonderful week!

~Elder Allred

Gloria

Still loving Poughkeepsie! This week has been kind of crazy. We had a ton of changes in our zone with this last transfer. So everyone has been adjusting to their new areas and new companions. For the last twelve weeks we've had another companionship of elders in the ward that I serve in. They both stayed to do another six weeks as companions in this area, and we also got two Spanish speaking sisters in the area. With the sisters coming in they needed an apartment, so Elder Burton and Elder L'Esperance moved in with us and the sisters took their old apartment. It's been fun to have them living with us. We've also had a couple decently warm days this week. The last two weeks were frigid, and the other day I didn't even have to wear a jacket. It's giving me spring fever! That means baseball season is around the corner again. My favorite time of the year. Two big things coming up this next week. Tomorrow we are going down to Manhattan for a meeting at the temple. We're going to have two general authorities visiting our mission and giving us some training. Elder Allen and Elder Evans. I'm not really sure what their exact callings are, but they are basically at the head of missionary work in the entire church. They work very closely with Elder Bednar to oversee the church's missionary efforts worldwide. I'm very excited. This meeting should be a very uplifting experience. We had a Mission Leadership Conference with President Morgan, his assistants, and all of the other zone leaders in Scarsdale on Saturday in preparation for this meeting. I learned a lot there, and I'm sure I'll learn even more tomorrow. The other exciting thing coming up is on Saturday. One of our investigators, Gloria, will be getting baptized! She's been meeting with missionaries for a long time and has been attending our ward almost every Sunday for about a year now. She's already integrated into the ward really well and has been so prepared to make this commitment. I've seen miracle after miracle as my companions and I have taught her over the past three months. I'm so happy that she's finally ready to do it. The cool thing is that Saturday is also her birthday. That will be such a special day for her! Other than that everything is great here. I'm glad that I get to stay a little longer! Hope you're all doing well. Love you!!

~Elder Allred 

4 More Cycles:)

This week is transfers again! Good news is that I'm staying in Poughkeepsie! I have at least six more weeks in this amazing place. Each cycle goes faster than the one before it. I only have four more chances to say that. Elder Kroff will be flying home tomorrow. Crazy! I always said that when Elder Kroff went home that's when my mission would really fly right to the end. I didn't think that would sneak up on me so fast. Having four cycles left is kind of the point that makes you one of the "old" guys in the mission haha. All of the sisters that flew out in my group are finishing their 18 months and going home as well. If I was a sister missionary, I would be on an airplane tomorrow. I'm so glad that's not the case. I don't feel like a year and a half is quite long enough. I still have some more serving to do. Good thing I have six months left! Well that's the only big news from this week. Other than that everything is going well. The work in our area is still moving along well. Joe is still doing great. He was going to bless the sacrament on Sunday, but our ward didn't meet because the roads were icy. This Sunday he will probably be able to do that. We had a Family Home Evening with him at a members house on Monday, the Ashworths. The Ashworths are an awesome family in the ward from England. They've been awesome at friendshipping and being with him through his transition into Mormonism. We will have to give some of our investigators to the sisters when they get here on Friday, but it will be good. It will allow us to have some more time to find good people and focus more on some of the people that we haven't been able to. We've seriously been so busy that we just haven't had time to meet with some people. So it will be good to have more missionaries to visit more people. Anyway, that's about all I've got this week. Sorry this is kind of a short email. Have a great week everyone. Love you!

~Elder Allred 

Priesthood

Hello family! Life is great! This week has been wonderful. We had another snow storm on Monday, so we were stuck at home all day again. The town that we live in, Hyde Park, is about a twenty minute drive north of the city of Poughkeepsie. Poughkeepsie is where most of the people we visit live, and it would't make sense to walk down to Poughkeepsie. It would just take too long. So when we get snowed in we end up staying in Hyde Park and shoveling snow all day. There is a member who lives in Hyde Park, just a couple streets down from where we live. She's a single lady, so we go and help her shovel her driveway. Then we just look for opportunities to help random people. It's good to have those service opportunities and do the Lord's work in a little bit of a different way than we normally do. Sunday was awesome. Joe got ordained to the office of a Priest in the Aaronic Priesthood! I'm so happy that he is continuing to progress in the gospel. Hopefully one day I will be there with him when he goes to the temple for the first time. We met with him yesterday, and he told us that now that he holds the Priesthood he feels even more responsible to do the right things. He said he didn't know how to explain it, but he sort of feels older now. I totally know what he means. While we were talking to him yesterday I realized something that I don't often think about. We are in a church of about 15 million members in a world of about 7 billion people. Let's just say that half of those members are male.And a little more than half of those males are over the age of twelve. That would mean that 3.5 million people in the world are capable of holding the Priesthood. And then think that not all of those men are worthy or have even received the Priesthood yet. I don't know how accurate this statistic is, but my guess is that there is somewhere around two million people in the world who are worthy Priesthood holders. Two million. In a world of 7 billion people. That's crazy. Like I said, I don't know if my guess is anywhere close. The point is that the number of worthy Priesthood holders compared to the number of inhabitants of the earth is so incredibly small. Joe is now one of those very few whom the Lord has trusted to hold His Priesthood power. I am one of those few. So many good people that I am closely associated with are some of those very few men that hold the true authority of God. It's amazing. Joe is so right. Holding the Priesthood is a big responsibility. To hold the only true authority of God on the entire earth. It makes me very grateful and humbled that the Lord has chosen me. Well, that's the big insight from me this week. Life is great! Working hard and having a lot of success. Today has been great. We visited the home of Franklin D Roosevelt this morning. It's in Hyde Park about five minutes from where we live. Now we're just eating at Cracker Barrel. It's always been one of my favorite places to eat. And of course since its a country themed restaurant I'm listening to a Tim McGraw song right now. Tender mercies! I love you all. Hope you're doing well! Have a great week, and Happy Valentines Day!! 

Elder Allred 

Upcoming Baptism:)

 Mom is SO jealous that Ty got to see the Yankees bike and Jorge's jersey 

At the gorgeous OCC showroom. One of his top 3 best Pdays ever! 

Life is great! The work is going really well here in Poughkeepsie. Our investigators have been progressing pretty well, but we're running into some concerns with some of them that are difficult to meet. One of our investigators told us a few weeks ago that he wants to be baptized, so we've been working with him to get him there. He has some pretty big concerns to work through before he can be baptized, though. We actually had a pretty frustrating lesson with Brother Smith yesterday. I love him with all my heart, but he is a very stubborn man. He has this whole theory about Joseph Smith and the Word of Wisdom. I won't go into the details, but it's super untrue and pretty disturbing. It's been a roller coaster with him, because he's so sincere about knowing that the Book of Mormon is true and that ours is the only church with the fullness of the truth. He even admits that he knows Joseph Smith was a prophet of God but tells us about how he thinks he was a really bad person. It hurts to hear that kind of thing about our beloved prophet, who I respect so much for his leadership and his character. Anyway yesterday was just more of the same disagreement on the Word of Wisdom and whether or not outlawing coffee was revelation from God. I walked away feeling very discouraged and a little angry. I didn't show it while we were with Brother Smith, but I sure did vent my frustrations to Elder Wagner in the car. I couldn't really think straight, and Elder Wagner couldn't either. So we decided that we should just pray. I prayed that we would be able to think clearly. That we would be able to put aside our frustrations with Brother Smith for the time being and just focus on the people we would be contacting and teaching for the rest of the night. I'm so grateful that I did! About an hour later we had a lesson with Joe. I haven't seen Joe for about a month. He's been visiting his family in Washington and his girlfriend, Jordynn's family, in Utah for Christmas break. We tried to set up Skype lessons with him, but it never really worked out. It was great to see him again. He looked really happy. When he and Jordynn walked into the room and sat down, I noticed that he had a brand new quad with his name engraved on it and a new CTR ring. It turns out his visit to Utah was awesome, and he spent the eighty bucks or whatever it costs these days to get himself a nice set of scriptures. He told us that his family still isn't completely on board with his decision to join the Church but he knows that he needs to do it. He told us that he's ready to be baptized! We were able to set a date for his baptism on the 31st of January, next Saturday. I just felt so incredible after the lesson with Joe. He's such a good guy. I know that the way the lesson turned out was an answer to the prayer I described from earlier in the day. If I had still been thinking about Brother Smith and still frustrated, I don't know if the lesson with Joe would have turned out so well. There is no doubt in my mind that the Lord is fully aware of each one of us. Doing the Lord's work is more and more amazing all the time. I'm grateful that I still have a good amount of time to have these kinds of missionary experiences. There is still so much ahead of me in the next seven months! Well that's the big thing from this week. Other than that everything is great! It's pretty cold here, but I think January will be the worst month. It will start warming up before we even know it. Thank you all for everything you do. Remember that God loves you and that He answers your prayers. I love you all so much. Have a wonderful week.!! 

$13 Suit

The New $13 Suit:) 

I LOVE Poughkeepsie! Everything about this place is just awesome. The work is going super well. The Ward is incredible. Super supportive. I was really impressed and grateful on Sunday morning in Ward Council. The Ward leadership is just so willing and capable of helping us in our missionary efforts. We definitely have the trust of the members here, which is always a hug blessing. Our investigators are amazing, and a few of them are really close to baptism. Also, Elder Wagner and I are getting along super well. We flew out in the same group, so we've both had quite a bit of mission experience. He's in the Spanish speaking program, which means he spent six weeks in the MTC compared to my two weeks. So he'll go home a cycle before I do. We're on the same page on everything that we are doing here, and I am just loving it. We have been really focusing on just being diligent and obedient. It's incredible the way the Lord blesses you if you will just do things His way. He knows a lot better than we do. I can't believe that I've already been here for almost two months. Time is already flying, and it kind of scares me. I can tell that my time in Poughkeepsie will just feel like a dream. I'll just enjoy every minute of it while it lasts. Random news. I found out what the new mission president's name will be. President Smith! He's currently a Bishop in Texas, and I'm sure he and his wife are nervously preparing for their calling to serve here. President Morgan goes home in June, so I'll serve under President Smith for my last six weeks. That time is fast approaching. Crazy! Another random thing. I have two suits, and both of them wore out on me this week. Just old and both got holes in the pants this week. I tried to save them, but my efforts were fruitless. So this morning I went to Goodwill to see if they might have one for me. I walked out with a perfectly fitted suit for 13 dollars. Pants and jacket. Perfect condition. I call that a tender mercy of the Lord! I also feel like I may need to repent, because I almost feel like I stole it haha. Anyway, we're on our way down to the temple right now. The Ward mission leader from the other Poughkeepsie Ward offered to drive us down to the city. I haven't been for a few months, so it will be nice to be back to the temple. We're so blessed to have a temple so close in our mission. There are missionaries who go to the temple before they leave home and don't see a temple until they come back. Overall, I just feel very blessed and very lucky to be serving in the place that I am serving. Wouldn't trade this for the world! Have a great week everyone. I love you!!

~Elder Allred 

Elder Wagner

Hello family! A lot of change this week! Elder Romo went home on Friday, which was pretty sad. He was a really good companion. I felt like our five weeks together was way too short. I learned a lot from him though, and I'm grateful for the time that we had to serve together. For the past few days  I have been working in a trio with Elder Burton and Elder L'Esperance, the other elders that are assigned to the Poughkeepsie 2nd Ward. I think I might have told you all of that last week, but I couldn't remember. Anyway, here's something new. My new companion will be Elder Wagner! He actually came out in the same cycle that I did. I saw him in the mission home the first night, and I don't remember seeing him much ever since then. We haven't served around each other at all. I may have seen him at the Christmas Devotionals or something, but that's pretty much the only time we would have been in the same place at the same time.  Anyway, the point is I don't really know him. I'm excited to get to know him and work with him! I've heard really good things about him. He got called to the Spanish speaking program, which is good. We really need it here. Since Elder Romo left we haven't been able to visit any of our Spanish people. So it will be good to be able to go visit them again. Elder Romo also had a big responsibility in the ward. None of the members know Spanish and English well enough to translate for the Spanish members. All of the meetings are in English, and there is a small handful of members who don't speak English at all. So Elder Romo has been the translator for the ward. Not having him there on Sunday made it kind of tough. So it will be really good to have Elder Wagner here! Anyway, transfer day is always crazy! So I will send you a longer email next week to update you on how our investigators are doing and everything. I"m doing well! Loving Poughkeepsie! I hope that I stay here for a while. I love you all so much! Have a wonderful week! 

~Elder Allred

Happy New Year

Happy New Year! 

It's officially 2015, the year I come home! I can't even believe it. I have no clue where the time has gone. When I think about the end of my mission, my emotions are all over the place. I'm so excited to be home with all of you again. But it makes me sad to think that this amazing experience will come to an end. So I try my hardest just to not think about it! Not the easiest thing to do haha. So much happened in 2014. It was an amazing year. I don't know how I'll top it this year. I'm off to a good start though. I am absolutely loving my area and the people we're teaching. Quick update on our investigators. Joe Starnes is doing really well. He's home in DC for the Christmas break, and we were able to have a Skype lesson with him the other day. He told us that he knows he wants to be baptized. He's having a tough time right now though, because his family isn't very supportive. They think that he's just getting baptized for his girlfriend. He's really genuine though. He told us the other day that he wants to do this for himself and that even if they didn't stay together he knows he would still want to keep coming to church. He's always really good to read his scriptures and to pray, and he really wants to do the right thing. Super cool guy. I'm excited about him. Duff Smith is doing well. He told us this week that he wants to be baptized too. He hasn't set a date yet, because he wants to tell his family first. I really like Duff. Most of our visits begin with me and him and talking about football for about 15 minutes. I love being able to connect with people that way. He said that he's going to be rebuilding some of his barns in the spring. I'm hoping I will still be here so that I can help him. I miss working with my hands. Our other main investigators are Gloria and Erica. Erica just moved down to Queens this last week. So we're Skyping with her right now and trying to set her up with the missionaries down there. Gloria is also moving soon but she'll probably stay here in Poughkeepsie. So we'll be able to continue working with her. The work is going really well. And we're blessed with a lot of great people to work with.The big news from this week is that Elder Romo is leaving today. We'll be dropping him off at the mission home this afternoon, and he will fly back to Utah tomorrow morning. Our time together was super short. I'm grateful that he was my companion. I learned a lot from him in just a few weeks, and I'm sad that he's leaving. He's a good dude, and I will miss him. I'm excited for him, though. He starts school at BYU on Monday. Pretty crazy! I won't get a new companion yet. So I will spend the next few days with the other missionaries in the ward, Elder Burton and Elder L'Esperance. I will find out on Saturday who my new companion will be. Then transfers are on Wednesday and he will come to Poughkeepsie. I can't believe the cycle is already almost over. I think I say it every time, but this was the fastest cycle yet. Only five more to go after this one. They will go by way too fast I think. Things are going really well. I love it here. I hope that I get to stay for a while. It was good to see all of you on Christmas for Skype. Looking forward to Mothers' Day! I hope you all have a happy new year and that this year is even better than the last. I love you. I miss you. I hope you have an awesome week. Thanks for all that you do to support me! 

Love,
Elder Allred

Pictures!

ELDER ALLRED in MILLBROOK, NY

I'll probably keep this email a little short today. That way I will have some time to email some of you back individually. Everything in Poughkeepsie is wonderful. We are having a lot of success, and our teaching pool is great. One of our main investigators is a 20 year old guy named Joe. He's from Washington DC but is currently attending Marist College in Poughkeepsie. He was introduced to the church when he met his girlfriend who is also attending Marist and just happens to be Mormon! So she brought him to church, and now we're teaching him. He's really cool, and he's taking the lessons really well. It's kind of cool to be teaching someone my age. I can relate to him much better than a lot of the other investigators that I've taught. This past Friday we had our mission Christmas devotional. I love that program! It's the only time of year when the whole mission gets to come together, which is about 260 missionaries these days. It's fun to see all of your mission buddies who are serving in different areas. It's been kind of hard for me to get into the Christmas spirit this year. It might just be because we haven't had much snow yet. I'm not really sure why. It doesn't really bother me though. I really think I"m just more focused on the missionary work that I'm doing and less on the holiday. I'm sure I'll get into it more this week! This is the last week of the Book of Mormon challenge! For those of you who are reading along with me, I'm going to make a few changes to the schedule so that I can finish on Christmas Eve. So tomorrow I'm going to read Ether chapter 13. Friday I will read Ether 14-15. Saturday I will read Moroni 1-2. Sunday Moroni 3-6.. Monday Moroni 7. Tuesday Moroni 8-9. Wednesday Moroni 10. I hope that schedule makes sense. Maybe someone could post this altered schedule on the Facebook group so everyone who is reading can follow if they'd like to. The Book of Mormon challenge has been incredible! I'll wait to share my thoughts next week as we finish it out. The challenge has had a huge impact on me though. Well, like I said, this email is a little bit shorter. I'm hoping to be able to email most of you back. I love you all so much! Can't wait to see you on Skype next week!!

~Elder Allred 

#SharetheGift

Life is good here in Poughkeepsie! Elder Romo and I had an awesome week! We're getting along really well . Having a lot of fun and going some good work. I don't even know where the past two weeks went. Now Elder Romo only has three more weeks until he goes home. It will kind of be a bummer when he leaves but I'm excited to continue working with him for a few more weeks. Our area is great. We're always really busy and have plenty of opportunities to teach, which is a big blessing. A lot of missionaries think that areas upstate out of the city are tough and kind of make it an excuse to not work hard and to settle for less than they can do. Luckily that's not the case for us here. We're both working hard and seeing blessings. We had one cool experience with a less active yesterday that I'd like to tell you about. His name is Harvey. His aunt is an active member who we visit every Tuesday for lunch. (The same one who I said "mucho gusto" to last week haha). Anyway she told us that he could use a visit, so on Monday we dropped by. He wasn't home, but his wife answered the door. She took our number and said she would tell him that we came by. This happens often. We give someone our number and they say they'll call. In my experience they usually don't ever call. So, we didn't think much of it. Didn't think he would call and just kind of shrugged it off, hoping we could drop by again next week. Well, at about five o clock yesterday we got a call from Harvey. He told us his wife relayed the message to him and that he wanted us to come and visit. We asked if he was free at six thirty and he said yes! So we went over and had a great visit with him. He's from Peru (which happens to be where Elder Romo is from) and speaks Spanish. So I didn't really get to say much. I understood parts of the conversation but couldn't get the whole thing. My understanding of the Spanish language is a lot more than it was before my mission but still not enough to communicate. So I asked Elder Romo afterward how it went. He said that Harvey told him he has been feeling guilty for some of the mistakes he has made and started this week to pray for help. We showed up right on time! Now Harvey wants us to visit often and help him, and he wants his non-member wife to learn about the church. Is it coincidence that we showed up when he needed us most? No. I am convinced that there is no such thing as coincidence in the work of the Lord. He directed us to Harvey right when he needed us. The Lord has His hand in what I'm doing every single day, and it's amazing when I get to see that as clearly as I did from this experience with Harvey. I love being a missionary. I'm also really enjoying my new calling as zone leader. It's been a bit of an adjustment for me. I was a district leader in Harlem for over four months, so I was pretty comfortable with my responsibilities in that calling. One thing I've learned is that when you get comfortable, the Lord doesn't let you stay comfortable for long. If that were the case we would be missing the purpose of progression in this life. So it's good that I'm adjusting to something new. I'm learning a lot and trying to figure out how I can lead the missionaries in my zone well. I had a great opportunity to learn on Friday. Usually the last Friday of each month the mission has a mission leadership council (MLC). The purpose of MLC is so that President Morgan, his assistants, the zone leaders and the sister training leaders can meet together and council on the needs of the mission. November's MCL got pushed back a week so we went to Scarsdale on Friday to attend that meeting. It was really cool! We actually had the opportunity to have Elder Anthony D Perkins from the First Quorum of the Seventy in that meeting with us. He is a spiritual powerhouse. Since he visited our mission I studied the talks he has given in general conferences. I really enjoyed his talk from the October 2006 general conference, "The Great and Wonderful Love". I learned so much from his teaching, and it was a really cool experience to be that close to a general authority. We also had some other awesome visitors. Elder Allen, who is the head of missionary work in the entire world and a team of five other church leaders in the missionary department joined us. They talked to us about the He is the Gift initiative. The team is actually the one that worked on this project and brought it before the Quorum of the Twelve. They are visiting New York City because a lot of the focus for this initiative is in this area. The Church has purchased space is Times Square and on public transportation to advertise this initiative. If any of you haven't heard of He is the Gift yet you should definitely check it out. The main part of the initiative is a video about Christmas and how Christ was the first gift. 

http://www.mormon.org/christmas

You can also search #SharetheGift to see what people are posting about it on social media. I love the video, and we're trying to use it a lot in our teaching and finding efforts. The way that the church is using social media is so cool! I'm so grateful to be a missionary during this exciting and historical time in the church. Anyway, that's about it for this week. Life is good! I'm loving it and just trying to soak in every minute of the time that I have left to serve the Lord full time. I hope you are all doing well. I'm so grateful for each one of you, and I love you with all my heart!

~Elder Allred 

Mucho Gusto!

Hey family!
First thing is that I'm sorry I wasn't able to do much emailing last week. My day was pretty crazy. Left the apartment in Harlem at about 8 am to go to the city transfer meeting at a chapel in North Manhattan. Then I left from there at probably like 12:30 to go to the upstate transfer meeting in Ossining, NY. We arrived in Ossining right in the middle of a snow storm. So by the time the upstate transfer was over at about 4 we needed to start on the hour long drive to Poughkeepsie which didn't leave me much time to email you guys. So if I left any of you hanging or with unanswered  questions I'm sorry! Anyway, Poughkeepsie is great! Elder Romo is awesome. He is nearing the end of his mission now, so he will go home in about four weeks. Hopefully we can have some fun and get some good work done before that happens. We're getting along really well. I've known him since the very beginning of my mission when I was in Newtown and he was serving in the Spanish Ward in the neighboring town of Danbury. The zone leader area here in Poughkeepsie has to have at least one Spanish speaking elder because there is no Spanish Ward in Poughkeepsie. However, there are a few Spanish members of the church here and some investigators who speak Spanish.  So some of the lessons we teach are all in Spanish and I pretty much just sit there and try not to fall asleep while Elder Romo teaches. Haha. I've been getting pretty good at praying in Spanglish, and I know a few phrases now. The other day we were eating lunch that a Spanish member prepared for us, and I looked at her and said "Mucho gusto!" Apparently what I said to her was, "Nice to meet you." What I meant to say was, "Me gusto mucho." Which would essentially mean, "I like the food a lot!" She understood that I don't speak Spanish and that I was trying. It was really funny though! We live in a small town just north of Poughkeepsie called Hyde Park. Elder Romo and I live in an apartment all by ourselves. It's quiet but nice. I'm definitely way more in my element here than in the city. Driving around the small towns up here reminds me of Nephi and Ephraim and makes me realize how grateful I am for the country life. I'm happy to be here! We're also plenty busy. We have a few pretty consistent investigators that we're working with who you will hear lots more about  as I get to know them better. Thanksgiving was great! We had dinner with a family in the ward. We were at their house for close to five hours. We ended up playing chess and just chilling. It was nice to kind of kick back and relax a little, especially after the crazy day we had the day before. A couple other families had us over for pie afterwards. So no need to worry. I was well taken care of! Although nobody had my favorite chocolate cream pie it was a great day! Haha. And my birthday was great too! I got all of the packages and everything the day before, so thank you all so much! You're the best! Well that's about it for now. Life is great! It's nice to slow down a little bit again and take some deep breaths. Living in the city for almost a year wore me out! Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and you're all doing well. Love you!! 

Elder Allred

Puh-kip-see

 Sister Kovac, whose Mom is a friend of Elder Allred's Mom

Sister Torres, who is Elder Allred's cousin Kylie's  BFF since they were teeny little girls:) 

Big week! So as most of you probably know... today is another transfer day. I'll just cut right to the news. I'm being transferred out of Harlem! President Morgan called me at about 9:45 Saturday night and told me that I would need to pack my bags. He also informed me that I would be released as a district leader and that he is calling me to be a zone leader. So I will be going to Poughkeepsie, NY, to be a zone leader with Elder Romo. A mixture of emotions filled me after I got that news. I'll explain a few. Sadness: I love Harlem so much! As you can tell from the emails that I've sent since coming here, I've had some incredible experiences and really feel like I've fulfilled my missionary purpose here. The people I've met are incredible. It was so hard to say goodbye to them over the past few days. Just so many amazing people. Members in the ward that I really look up to. Investigators. Other missionaries. Little pieces of my heart are scattered all throughout Harlem. Excitement: change is always exciting! I know that there are new opportunities to learn and progress just waiting for me in Poughkeepsie. It will be kinda nice to be out of the fast paced and tiring lifestyle of the city. I love it here, but it has for sure made me tired. I could use a slow down, and I'm excited to get back into a taste of the quiet country life. Nervousness: being a zone leader is a huge responsibility. I will be expected to train and help a lot more missionaries now. The effect that a zone leader has on his missionaries is incredible. I will need to learn to lead by example and love. I know that I am capable. That's why the Lord is calling me to do it. It will be a challenge though, and there will be a lot on my shoulders. I let my weaknesses scare me a little bit too much sometimes. Anyway, these are just a few of the feelings that I've had over the weekend. There are several more! It's just been so crazy and busy! Packing up your whole life and moving on a three day notice leaves you with a lot to do in a little amount of time. I will miss Harlem so much! This place will always be a special and sacred place to me. Some other news is that my roommate/zone leader, Elder Smith, was called to serve as an assistant to President Morgan. He and I are really good friends. We came to Harlem together and have lived in the same apartment for almost six months. I'm excited to have him leading the mission, and I will be able to continue working closely with him since I will be serving as a zone leader. Zone leaders have pretty frequent contact with the assistants. I'm ready for what is ahead in the next part of my mission! I know that I will see miracles in Poughkeepsie! Elder Romo is a great guy too. I've know him since the beginning of my mission. We were in the same zone when I started in Newtown and again in the same zone when I went down to the Bronx. Really good friend of mine. So I'm excited to see the work that we will be able to do together. Anyway, life is great! I love the mission so much! It's really scary how fast it is slipping through my fingers now, but I'm just trying not to think about it and continue serving the Lord the best I can. I hope you all have  a wonderful Thanksgiving and that the Cowboys lay down a good beating on Philly! I love you!!!! 

~Elder Allred