Time Flies!

I can't believe I'm already on week six! We do transfers every six weeks, so that means that next Wednesday a lot of people will get switched around. We'll know by Saturday who's leaving the area and who's staying. Pretty crazy! I will probably stay here for the next cycle. Hopefully Elder Kroff stays too. He's been here for five cycles now, so that's about seven months. There's definitely a possibility of him leaving. Most of the time, though, your trainer will stay with you for your second cycle, because it takes 12 weeks to finish training. I don't want to lose him just yet! He's a great trainer. This last week has been so busy. We spent the day last Wednesday cleaning the apartment for conference cleaning checks, which took so long! We started right after we e-mailed, cleaned until 10, and went to sleep.  The missionaries that have lived in our apartment in the past definitely didn't take good care of the place. The point of that story is that I had zero time to write letters last p-day. And I won't have any time to write any today either, because we're going to a zone activity in Ossening, which is about an hour away. So, I might be a little slower writing back. I'll do my best though! On Sunday night, we went to dinner at a non-member's house. Some of the Elders helped her move into her new apartment a couple weeks ago, and she was so grateful that she wanted to thank us by feeding us all dinner. Her name is S. and she has two little kids. Her kids have some kind of special ability where they can listen to a song and play it back by ear on the piano. She said it happens with one in every ten thousand people, so they are really good at the piano. Her ten year old girl played for us and it blew me away. Her hands were moving so fast! I've never seen someone in person that's as good as she was, and she's only ten. It was so cool. Also, as we ate dinner, S. asked us why we came on missions. We all basically got to bear our testimonies to her and her family. Afterward she began to ask questions about the Church and the Book of Mormon. She got really excited about bringing her and her kids to church this Sunday. How cool is that? She's not in my area, so Elder Elliott and Elder Fragiacomo (the other guys that we live with) will be teaching her. I felt the spirit so strongly, and it helped reassure me why I'm here. The Lord has prepared people for us to teach that will be receptive of the Gospel. We go through rejection after rejection, but when we keep trying, the Lord trusts us enough to bring people to us in His way and His time. It's so cool to see those miracles all the time as a missionary. Everyone faces rejection. Metaphorically, everyone gets doors slammed in their face all the time. But if we don't let those rejections discourage us, we all get our own S's  in our lives. The Lord blesses us for enduring through all the temptations and the struggles. This is true for me, as a missionary, and I know it's true for all of you too. Miracles are all around us. Great or small. We just have to recognize them and thank the Lord for them. Another cool thing that happened this week is that our mission was visited by a General Authority. We all went to Scarsdale yesterday and got to hear from Elder Bruce A Carlson of the second quorum of the Seventy. He's a retired four-star general of the Air Force. What a privilege it was to hear from him. He talked about four things we can do to become more consecrated. Smile, focus, be obedient and open our mouths. I really like that first one. Always smile. It's true with everything in life. Not just missions. If we aren't enjoying what we're doing, then we're doing it wrong. That's why I always like to tell you guys to smile. Enjoy life. Enjoy it every day. The Lord loves us so much and he wants us to be happy. So, let's be happy! Happy with everything that life throws our way. Count your blessings and remember the miracles that you've seen and the blessings that you've received. I love you all so much! Have a fabulous week! 

Love, 

Elder Allred