Saturday Is A Special Day:)

Hey family! 

I hope you all had a wonderful week! Everything is good here. I don't think I fully realized it until this week, but I have seen some incredible miracles since I've been in Harlem. On Saturday, Rafael and Noel are getting baptized. They both had their interviews in the past few days and both passed! Both of their conversion stories are incredible in unique ways. Noel has been awesome. Elder Raine and I were just out knocking on doors his first day here. The very first door that Elder Raine ever knocked on on his mission was Noel's. Whenever I used to hear people tell stories like that I thought it would never happen in my mission.  But here we are. We've been meeting with him two or three times a week for the past three months, and he's getting baptized! He's just such an honest and humble man. He will be an awesome addition to the Harlem 1st Ward. Rafael is one of the best friends I've ever had in my life. He and I have a really good relationship, and we've both grown together in the Gospel over the last four and a half months that I've been here. I remember the very first time that I went over to teach him and Kristina. I could just tell that there was something special about them. I remember feeling the Spirit so strongly and I could just feel the strength of their faith. I knew they would both eventually be baptized. I'm excited to continue to watch them grow in the rest of my time here, and I'm excited to keep that relationship with them for the rest of my life. I hope you all get to meet these people one day. They are incredible. I've learned so much about charity in the time that I've served here in  Harlem. I love these people so much. I've expressed that love to them time and time again, and I've shed a few tears over the intense emotion of love that I have for them. There aren't words to express how grateful I am to have them in my life. Saturday will be such a special day! Everything else is going really well too. I had the opportunity to have another interview with President Morgan on Monday. He is such a good man and has done more for me that I could ever repay him for. He leads the mission with love and care. He has developed a relationship with me on a personal level that means a lot, and I'm so grateful for him. They say behind every good man is a good woman. Such is the case with President Morgan's wife. Sister Morgan has honestly been like a mother to me here. She provides the kind of care that only a mom can give. I'm so grateful for both of their dedicated service to this mission. In my interview with President Morgan I told him that I can feel my time slipping through my fingers and that it kind of scares me. So, I asked him what I needed to focus on to make the most out of the rest of my mission. It couldn't have been a better time to ask. This weekend he was in Palmyra at a special conference with Elder Holland! (Crazy right?) I can't imagine how awesome that would have been. He said that he got to spend a little one on one time with Elder Holland, and when I asked President Morgan that question, he relayed a message that Elder Holland had given him this weekend. That was pretty powerful and the advice he gave me will give me a lot of direction for the next ten months. One last thing from this week was that we had stake conference, and it was really good! Saturday afternoon we found out that all of the missionaries in the stake were going to be singing a musical number for the Sunday session. So we showed up at the temple early so we could rehearse. Luckily the song was Called to Serve, so it wasn't hard for anyone to sing. It was really cool! Oh yeah, and my highlight from the 120 day challenge this week was Alma 14:26. Alma understood that strength from the Lord was totally dependent upon his and Amulek's faith. Such is the case for us. The divine help that we receive is only as strong as our faith in the Savior is, and the way we gain more faith is by fully living the doctrine of Christ! Anyway, life is just so good. I love it here more and more every day! Thank you all for everything you do, and don't forget that Jesus loves you! !

~Elder Allred 

120 Day Challenge!

We went to the 9/11 Memorial last p-day. I still can't believe I live in New York City. This place is incredible! 

Hey everyone! I hope you've all had a wonderful week. I know I sure have. For starters, we had zone conference yesterday. I always love zone conference so much, because every time it happens I walk away having learned something new and with a renewed desire to share the gospel with people. The theme for this zone conference was "Blessed by the Basics". We had about four hours of training and presentations from President and Sister Morgan and the assistants. Everything they talked about was focused on the importance of studying Preach my Gospel and the Book of Mormon and using it to teach people the gospel. This was a really good reminder for me to get back into studying Preach my Gospel. I studied it a lot toward the beginning of my mission when I didn't know the missionary lessons very well. I noticed that as I had more practice and got more comfortable teaching, I kind of strayed away from studying it, and as I've had the opportunity to get back into it in the last couple of weeks, I have definitely seen the blessings that come from studying Preach my Gospel. President Morgan also encouraged us to focus our efforts back into the Book of Mormon. We have a goal as a mission that starting on August 25th, we are going to do the "120 Day Challenge". We are all going to read the Book of Mormon cover to cover, and finish it by December 24th. I really think this will help our mission be unified and solidified in our testimonies of the Book of Mormon. I was also thinking it would be cool for you guys to join me in this challenge and read along with me. I'll map out my schedule this week and send it next Wednesday so you can follow me. So anyone who wants to join me in the 120 Day Challenge is more than welcome. You don't have to, but I think it would be really cool! I'm excited to get back to the basics of  missionary work through PMG and the Book of Mormon. We are called to preach the gospel clearly and simply, and this will really help me do that I think. The other fun part about zone conference was that I was asked to sing in a musical number. So I sane "Brightly Beams our Father's Mercy" with Elder Fronk, and Kroff, and two other missionaries. I was so nervous, and I felt like my voice was shaking like crazy! But I really enjoyed singing with some of my best friends. Anyway, like any other Wednesday, I don't have much time to email. So, that's about all I will be able to share. The rest of the week was good though. The work is great, and we saw miracles this week as we went from having one baptism date to having three! Kristina called and told us she's finally ready to be baptized and knows that it is true! She is preparing to enter into that covenant on the 13th of September! This work is incredible you guys. I love it so much. I just can't stress enough how fast I feel like the time is going though. Each week goes faster than the last, and I can't believe I've been in Harlem for over two months already. I miss you all so much. I love you and I hope you have a great week! 

~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~ 

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