Daily Bread

It's the last pday of the cycle, so Elder Hansen and I are going down to Manhattan today. Elder Hansen's last companion is Chinese, so we're gonna go down to Chinatown to see him. I've also heard they have incredible food down there. So, it should be fun! This week has been really good. I've been a little discouraged because we haven't been able to teach very much in the past few weeks. Not too discouraged, but a little bit. Missionary work is just so much more fulfilling and enjoyable when you have atleast one consistent investigator. Luckily, this week has changed that. We started getting a ton of media referrals. Those come as a result of a few different things. Either they got on mormon.org themselves and put in their information, or someone else put their information in without them knowing it. So, a good number of times when we try to contact these media referrals, they don't have any idea that we're coming and aren't actually interested. One of our new ones is really promising though! Her name is Theresita, and she lives in one of the projects in our area. We met with her for the first time on Saturday. I felt the spirit so strongly during that lesson. It was really incredible. She was so excited to have us over, and she kept saying that we were an answer to her prayers. So, she invited us to come back on Monday and teach her again. And we already have another appointment with her tonight! She's really just on fire and ready to learn as much as she can. After our first meeting, she was reading one of the pamphlets that we gave her, and it referenced a scripture in Alma. She said she was looking everywhere for it in her Bible, but she couldn't find it. She finally figured out that it wasn't in there and texted us Sunday night saying that she really needed us to bring her a Book of Mormon. So, I'm just really excited to be teaching her. There's one tricky thing that we'll have to deal with. After our meeting Saturday afternoon, she went and got baptized that night. In another church! Haha. Pretty crazy. So far, we've just been really supportive of her decision to do that. It seems to have been a real faith building experience for her, which is always good! We haven't told her yet that her baptism wasn't done with the authority of the Priesthood. She just doesn't know yet that she hasn't received the full truth and her full potential. We're gonna teach her about Joseph Smith and the restoration of the Priesthood tonight, so it will definitely come up in that lesson. I'm excited to see where it goes with Theresita! We also started teaching a kid named Zahill this week. He's a young kid, about nine or ten years old. He and his mom live with his grandma, who is an active member. His mom isn't a member, but he's been a baptized member since September. So, we've just been going over the basic missionary lessons with him. It's been cool, because his mom sits in the other room and does her own thing, but she listens to the whole lesson. The other day, she even helped us explain to him what a word meant. So hopefully by us bringing the Spirit with a gospel lesson, she will feel it. The Spirit is good at catching people who aren't expecting to feel anything. I definitely saw that as we taught Declan, and Sister O'Grady came back to church with him. She didn't think she would ever be active again, but the Spirit did what it does best! Anyway, I just feel really blessed to have the opportunity to be teaching more. If you think of the story of Moses and the children of Israel, God provided them with manna so that they could be nourished and uplifted in the wilderness. There are a lot of things that provide me with "spiritual manna". I think the biggest one for me though is sharing my testimony with others. Being a missionary, I get that opportunity way more often than ever before, and it helps me so much! If you get the chance, watch the Mormon Messages "Daily Bread" and you'll know what I'm talking about here. There are three videos in the little series. I love them so much! Just go to mormonchannel.org or lds.org and you'll be able to find them. Things are great right now. The Bronx is awesome, and the weather is finally warming up a little! It was sixty degrees yesterday! It felt so nice. I had spring fever like crazy, and all I wanted to do was grab a mitt and throw a softball with someone. It's my favorite time of year. I can't believe transfers are next week. This cycle has flown by way too fast. It doesn't feel like it's been a month and a half since I left Newtown, and it definitely doesn't feel like seven months since I left home! I say it all the time, but the time really is flying.  It's kinda weird actually. Haha. I'm sure by the end of my mission, I will feel like I should still have six months left! Anyway, that's about it for this week. Have a great week everyone, and enjoy the warm weather that's on its way. Love you!!!

~Elder Allred