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~ 

April 23

Hey everyone~

I'm a little bit later than usual today. I hope you guys didn't think I forgot about you! I hope you all had a happy Easter! I know I sure did. Our speakers on Sunday were Elder and Sister Brown from Rexburg, Idaho. They've been serving here in the Olmstead 2nd Ward for about eighteen months. They were called here for ward support and to work in the Manhattan temple. They'll be going back home to Rexburg next week. They have contributed a lot to this ward and will definitely be missed. I've really come to love those guys a lot since being here in the Bronx. Before my mission I didn't think we would work with senior couples at all, but we actually do quite a bit of work with them. This week has been really good. On Monday, all of the missionaries in Manhattan and the Bronx got together and had a meeting. President Morgan gave a specialty training on setting goals and having faith. It's always good to have big meetings like that. It really helps motivate me to be a better missionary and to work harder. The last couple of days since then have been awesome. Elder Rydalch and I have been working extra hard and trying to find people to teach. I can feel the power that is there as we are both exercising our faith more. I don't know if I said it in my last email or not, but things have been a little down lately. The work has just been really slow, and we've been struggling to find consistent people to teach. In my three months here, we haven't really had anyone other than Theresita that has progressed, and we only worked with her for a couple of weeks. The whole time I was in Newtown we always taught Declan and Kim. So, to go from that to nobody at all is a little rough. Like I said though, we're working hard and trying. We've talked to a lot more people lately and some have even showed some promising potential. Hopefully things will pick up soon! Other than that, things are good. I'm having so much fun with Elder Rydalch and our roommates. We can all sit and talk for hours with each other. There haven't been too many times in my life that I've laughed as much as I do now. It's awesome! Probably my favorite thing that we all like doing together is sing country music. I miss it so much! I hear it in the gym every once in a while though. They played an Eli Young Band song this morning. We all loved the Yankees game last week. It was seriously incredible. That was probably the fastest three hours of my entire life. I could have sat in that stadium forever. I can't wait until we can all go to a game together next summer! The only bummer was that I didn't get to see Jeter play :/ There is another Wednesday afternoon game scheduled against Tampa Bay in July. I'm gonna give it awhile, but I'll be asking President Morgan if I can go to that one too. Hopefully he'll feel generous enough to let me go to two in one year. I just really want to see Jeter play in Yankee Stadium so bad before he retires. We'll see what happens. Well, we get shot calls on Saturday night. That's where we find out where we will be serving for next cycle. I can't believe it's already that time again! I think I say it every six weeks, but it's so true that each one goes by faster than the last. It's kinda scary how fast it goes actually. Hopefully Elder Rydalch and I both stay. We're pretty sure Elder Sorenson will be going somewhere else and Elder Kohli will be staying. Next cycle is Elder Kohli's last one, so I really hope I get to keep serving around him before he goes back home to Ogden. He and I have become really good friends in the last five weeks, even though he's a Braves fan. I guess we can still get along. Haha. Anyway, I'm doing really well. I'm happy, I'm healthy, and it's almost summer! Nothing to complain about. I hope you are all doing well too. You should all know that a good amount of the reason I'm still out here is because of you. Because I know that God is watching over you and sending extra blessings your way. That might be a selfish reason, but it's one of mine. There are definitely other reasons, but you guys are a big one. I miss you all so much. I wish I could be with you, bit I know that the day we are all reunited will be indescribably joyful because of the difficult time that it has been to be apart. Thank you all for everything that you do for me and for the love and support. I'm sorry for how bad I've been at writing letters. I'm trying to do better. Just know that you're in my thoughts and prayers every day. I love you, I love you, I love you!!!

~Elder Allred 

PICTURES!!!

Elder Allred, Elder Sorenson, Elder Rydalch, Elder Kohli

WHAT!!??? A Yankees game:)!!

Hey everyone, 

Things are good! I feel like this week went by faster than any other of my whole mission yet. It's already been a week and a half since the wedding and General Conference. Time goes too fast. Before we know it, summer will be upon us, and then I will be a year from coming home. Before my mission, everyone said it would go by fast. I believed them, but I didn't realize just how fast it really would be. It reminds me of that song by Kenny Chesney, "Don't Blink". If I blink, I might just miss something cool. Just thinking of that song reminded me of something. Our apartment right now consists of me, Elder Rydalch, and Elder Kohli, all country boys from small town Utah. Our other roommate is Elder Sorenson from Vegas, so he's a bit of a black sheep here. Anyway, the three of us have been on a huge singing kick lately. It's so great to have good friends. The mission buddies will be some of my best friends for the rest of my life. I think every day this week we've had ourselves a little jam session in the apartment remembering all of our favorite country songs. It's awesome! We even got the Vegas boy to sing a little bit of T-Swift with us haha. I just want to listen to music so bad. There's plenty of good missionary approved music, but it's just not the same as my favorites from home. I guess that's all part of the sacrifice I have to make to be here. Things have been a little down as far as the work goes. Just about a month ago, things really started booming, and new people to teach were coming up everywhere. Since Theresita dropped us a couple weeks ago though, things have just really slowed down. I've tried my hardest not to let it get me down, but it had put me into kind of a weird funk. The other day, I had the chance to go on a split with my Zone Leader, Elder Staheli. I was talking to him about the area and how I was feeling. He really encouraged me and told me that he has noticed my hard work. He said that I was a good example to the other missionaries in the zone. It really was cool of him and I could feel the sincerity of his words. Elder Taylor (my trainer's trainer) was a ZL here last cycle. He helped me a lot while he was here. He's actually one of the AP's now. The guy that replaced him is Elder Tancayo, from Hawaii. Another really cool guy. My whole mission I've had awesome leaders who have encouraged me and gotten me through the hard times. That's a huge blessing. Anyway, things should hopefully be looking up soon. We had an idea to start a free bible study class at the church. We handed out a whole bunch of flyers and posted some in businesses that would let us. Hopefully people will be interested and we can maybe find some people to teach that way. All we can do is work hard and do things the best way that we know how. Whether we teach people or not is up to the Lord. We're just His instruments. Our only job really is to stay worthy and be out there talking to people. We had something pretty cool happen on Monday. We were outside contacting people, and this guy came up and started talking to us. Turns out he is a member from Anaheim who lives in Provo now. He was in the Bronx for a few days working. He was so excited to see us and took us all out to Taco Bell for dinner. It was so cool of him! The guy was hilarious, and he actually knew one of our Sister Missionaries, Sister Makanesi who is from Anaheim too. That was a really neat experience. It's so awesome how much people care about us missionaries and want to take care of us. I'm incredibly grateful for all of the love I have felt from others and the support I've had in my service to the Lord. 

Okay, last thing for this week's email. Yesterday it was way rainy. The Yankees had a game scheduled with the Cubs, but it got rained out. We found out from a member that it was rescheduled for this afternoon at 1:05. So since I'm good friends with one of the AP's, Elder Taylor, I gave him a call last night. I told him what was going on and asked if there was any chance at all that we'd be able to go. He's really into baseball too, so he was excited. He called President Morgan and asked him. President Morgan, being the great man that he is, gave us the okay! I'm going to a Yankees game today!!!! Me, Elder Rydalch, and our two roommates are all going together. If any of you have MLB.tv, watch for a group of four guys in white shirts and ties. How cool is this you guys? I live in the Bronx. A Yankees fan from little Nephi, Utah. And I'm going to the stadium to watch a game today. There's no way anyone could tell me that God didn't place me here. He could have me anywhere in the world right now, but He has me here. If that's not a big bright neon flashing sign that says God knows me personally, I don't know what would be. He knows us all. There's not a shadow of a doubt in my mind that this is true. I hope you all know that too. He knows you and loves you. He cares about you and watches over you. Sometime He might even take you to a baseball game! Needless to say, I'm so excited!! I am living the dream right now. I'm being take care of so incredibly well, and I'm running out of room to count all of my blessings. I'll take some pictures on my iPad today and send them. Have a great week everybody. I love you all so much!!

~Elder Allred