3 More Months!

Yay! Lots of pictures for Sister Smith this week:) 

We got some pretty exciting news this week! We went up to mission leadership council in Scarsdale on Friday, and President Morgan gave us some really awesome training to give to our zone. One of the biggest things that I got out of the meeting was when President Morgan was talking about missionaries that are approaching the end of their missions. The whole thing started when he got talking about how he will be going home in a couple of months. He got super emotional. Serving in a place for two years gets you pretty attached, but I'm sure that serving for three makes it even harder to leave. He said something specifically to older missionaries.  Exact quote "Be exactly who the Lord wants you to be all the way to the end". I come home in three months. I definitely fall into the category of missionaries that President Morgan was talking to. I'm not sure what my calling will be next cycle. I don't know where I'll be serving a week from now. I could stay here or I could get transferred to another area. No matter where I am, what calling I have, who my companion is, or who I'm teaching, I need to be the person that the Lord needs me to be. All the way to the end. I fully intend on finishing strong and being exhausted when I step off of that plane. I'm grateful for that motivating reminder. Now for the exciting news that I was talking about.  First is that on June 30rh we will have a meeting where we get to meet President and Sister Smith. It's going to be kind of weird for me, because by that point I will only have just under six weeks left. So I don't really know what it will be like to see President Smith at the pulpit instead of President Morgan. I'm excited though. I'm sure President Smith will be awesome! He's definitely got some big shoes to fill. This Saturday we will be having another all mission conference at the temple in Manhattan. With a special visitor, Elder Quentin L Cook of the quorum of the twelve apostles! Yup, pretty awesome. He's  coming to New York and exclusively visiting our mission. Usually when church leaders tour they hit a few missions in the area. But Elder Cook is only visiting NYNYN. We're pretty lucky! We don't know what the training will be on yet, but I'm sure I will learn so much! Last big announcement.... I think some of you may have heard this already. But I'm like a kid on Christmas a thousand times over on this one.  July 3rd the Mormon Tabernacle Choir will be performing at Yankee Stadium. They're going to open a Yankees-Rays game with five numbers, finishing with the National Anthem to start the game, and the whole mission is going to the game! Seriously... am I dreaming? I don't know if they are going to show the game on TV, but hopefully some of you can watch. I think that the camera crew will probably pan over the section of missionaries at least once during the game. That day will be pretty crazy, because I'll be about a month out from coming home. Exciting stuff coming up!!! I love the mission as much as ever, and we've had some great success with our investigators here. I also really love the ward that we're serving in. With transfers next week I'm a little on edge. I don't know why, but I think there might be a chance that I'll leave. Hopefully not, but like I said wherever I serve I'll just put it in the Lord's hands.  I'm excited for what the next three months has in store. Plenty of miracles left to be had in the mission field for me! Hope you're all doing well! Can't wait to see you on Skype! Love you!!!

~Elder Allred